Forests and Environment Minister assures of expediting zoological park construction

Bhaktapur: Minister for Forests and Environment, Ain Bahadur Shahi Thakuri, has said the stalled construction of the National Zoological Park at Suryabinayak, Bhaktapur would be pursued especially.

Addressing the Face-to-Face programme organized by the Nepal Press Society here today, Minister Thakuri said the Ministry will make a special decision for continuing the park construction works.

He asserted that he would work seriously to build an international-standard park, allocating approximately one billion rupees budget for this purpose in the next fiscal year. Lawmaker Durlav Thapa said the National Zoological Park will provide big support for tourism promotion in the country and urged the government to complete this project at the earliest.

He suggested taking this project as a mega-project. Member-Secretary of the National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC), Dr Naresh Subedi, said although works on construction of the zoological park were started under the policy of ‘One Province, One Zoological Park’ in the government’s budget statement for fiscal year 2073/074 BS, works have not moved ahead except for construction of the park’s office building eight years since.

He said if the government cannot construct the facility, NNTC was ready to complete the construction even by mobilizing funds from donors. Subedi added that the NNTC could complete the works of the zoological park within five to 10 years if the government leased it to the NNTC for 60 years.

Chief of National Zoological Park, Bhupendra Yadav, said the construction works of the park are in limbo due to the negligence of the government and urged the federal and local governments to expedite the construction works through collaboration.

Suryabinayak Municipality’s spokesperson Rabindra Sapkota called on the government to keep the park construction in priority and speed up the works on it.

Nepal Press Society president Upendra KC said the media should also exert pressure on the authorities concerned to speed up the construction of the National Zoological Park.

The government on February 12, 2015, had prepared the directive for the construction of the park on 245 hectares of area occupied by community and government forest at Suryabinayak of Bhaktapur.

RSS