PM Oli inaugurates Damak View Tower

Kathmandu / Dec 8: Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli inaugurated the 18-story business tower built in his home constituency of Damak, Jhapa, on Sunday. The tower, built at a cost of nearly Rs two billion, was constructed under Oli’s plan in Damak Municipality-3, during the Covid-19 pandemic and has sparked widespread discussion.

Oli laid the foundation stone for this tower over five years ago. The Chinese construction company ZCGIEC and Ashish and Om Sairam JV jointly constructed the tower.

The construction of this tower was completed a year ago. Almost a year after its completion, the View Tower in Damak, Jhapa, is set to begin business operations. After Prime Minister Oli officially inaugurates the tower on Sunday, it will begin operating commercially, according to Ramesh Thing, the Project Chief of the Urban and Building Construction Program under the Ministry of Urban Development in Jhapa. He also mentioned that Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Urban Development Prakash Man Singh will attend the inauguration ceremony.

The Ministry of Urban Development will organize the event, with senior officials, including the ministry’s Secretary Gopal Sigdel, attending the inauguration ceremony. A development committee, chaired by the ministry’s secretary, will operate the View Tower. Until the appointment of an executive director, the ministry will assign a staff member at the level of undersecretary to manage and operate the View Tower.

The development committee’s formation order assigns a single committee to manage and operate six important structures, including the Dharahara in Kathmandu, and the Sunrise Assembly Hall. While managing these structures, the committee can open tenders and lease them to the private sector for a specified period, as needed.

The contractor company handed over the View Tower to the Integrated Urban Development and Building Construction Project Office in Jhapa under the Ministry of Urban Development in December 2023.

The View Tower in Damak, built at a cost of Rs 2 billion, stands about 6 kilometers west of Damak Bazaar. Experts expect its management and operational works to be expensive. Its distance from Damak’s main market area could make running shopping malls, gyms, hospitals or beauty parlors on profit margins rather unfeasible.

The View Tower in Damak covers approximately five bighas of land in Ward-3 of Damak Municipality. The authorities signed the contract on July 12, 2019, for a cost of Rs 1.56 billion, with the project scheduled for completion by July 11, 2021.

After the contractor failed to complete the work within the specified time, the authorities extended the deadline until July 12, 2023. Since the work was still not finished, they extended the deadline for the third time. During the second extension, the project incurred an additional Rs 102.78 million in costs, raising the revised contract amount to Rs 1.66 billion.

PM Oli inaugurates building of Manav Sewa Ashram

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of the building of Manav Sewa Ashram, situated at Mechinagar Municipality-4, Jhapa.

PM Oli and First Lady Radhika Shakya inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of the building. In the program, the local Ram Bahadur Pradhan and his family who donated two Bigas and five Katta of land for the ashram were honored.

PM Oli announced that he would provide his one month’s salary for the construction of the Ashram building, while First Lady Shakya will donate her two month’s pension. After Prime Minister Oli’s announcement, other guests and public representatives also announced their support.