Kathmandu, Jan. 28: Maharjan
Business Associates Sunday said that their right to property was intruded on as
some people continuously harassed them and tried to disgrace them publicly.
The company is
constructing a business complex dismantling the erstwhile Crystal Hotel at the
eastern side of the Hanumandhok Durbar Square.
"We have followed
all the legal procedures and building construction standards around the Durbar
Square as well as the quake resistant measures. The Kathmandu Metropolitan City
Office has approved the house-design," said Krishna Lal Maharjan of the
company.
A group of people had
organised a protest programme near the construction site, burned effigy of
Maharjan brothers, filed compliant at various government agencies as well as
the UNESCO Nepal Office, and now they are organising a signature campaign
against the building, which is named as Maharjan Complex.
"Their activities
are not only obstructing us from exercising our right to property, but it has
causing lots of psychological tensions," said Maharjan.
The company is
constructing the commercial complex at the cost of Rs. 2.5 billion. The
building will be built as per neo-classical model which add beauty to the
locality, claimed the company.
The UNESCO Nepal Office
has concluded that the construction of the building will fully respect the
allowable height limit and have a neo-classical style façade, matching the
surroundings, in particular with the Gaddhi Baithak, and the digging of the
underground was done in an area, which already mostly had an underground floor,
with some additional parts necessary for the structural stability of the
building.
Maharjan said that the
new building will expand in 20 Ana and 40 per cent land will be left as void
and circulation path.
Although the standards
issued by the Department of Archaeology (DoA) for the construction at the
Hanumandhoka Conservation Site allow to construct the building at its earlier
height of eight storeys, the new building will have only 5-storey including the
basement and will be 42 feet tall.
The erstwhile Crystal
hotel was 53.3 feet tall.
Published in The Rising Nepal daily on Jan. 28, 2018.
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