Kathmandu: All necessary preparations, including the assembly hall arrangements, have been completed for administering the oath to newly elected members of the House of Representatives and for conducting the parliamentary session.
As the under-construction Parliament building could not be completed on time, a multipurpose hall within the new Parliament complex has been prepared on a temporary basis for administering the oath to Members of Parliament and for holding the session. According to constitutional provisions, a session of Parliament must be convened within 30 days of the announcement of the final election results.
Since the main assembly hall for parliamentary meetings will take additional time to complete, this multipurpose hall will be used temporarily. Seating arrangements in the hall have already been completed, while the installation of microphones, cameras, and other equipment is progressing rapidly. A temporary hall has been prepared with the plan to administer the oath to Members of Parliament on March 25.
Home Minister Om Prakash Aryal informed that all preparations for conducting the parliamentary session have been completed. During his inspection of the under-construction Parliament building and the temporary hall prepared for the oath-taking ceremony and session, Minister Aryal confirmed that the arrangements are fully in place.
Providing details about the prepared hall, Minister Aryal stated that it has been designed to accommodate separate meetings of the House of Representatives, as well as joint sessions of both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly, if required. Necessary infrastructure has been arranged to facilitate joint sessions of both houses. The office of the Speaker has also been completed.
He further stated that seating and furniture arrangements for Members of the House of Representatives and other essnetial participants are in satisfactory condition. The installation of microphones (sound systems) and display screens is in its final stage. Although the hall has been prepared on a temporary basis, the quality of furniture and technology used is of a high standard.
Until 2008, parliamentary meetings were held in a building located in Putali Bagaincha within Singha Durbar. After the number of Constituent Assembly members increased, sessions were conducted at the International Convention Centre in New Baneshwor.
Following incidents of arson, vandalism, and looting on September 10 at the Parliament building in New Baneshwor, registered under the name of Zenji Group, the facility was completely damaged, resulting in a shortage of meeting space for both the House of Representatives and the National Assembly. The Parliament Secretariat had been paying an annual rent of NPR 105.8 million for the New Baneshwor building.
A new Parliament building is currently under construction within the Singha Durbar premises at an estimated cost of around NPR 5 billion. The contract was awarded jointly to the Nepali construction company Tundi and the Chinese construction company SEPC. The project was inaugurated on October 18, 2019, by then Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, and a construction agreement was signed on November 2, 2019, with a target to complete the work within three years. However, even after six years since the agreement, the project has not yet been completed. So far, the overall physical progress of the Parliament building stands at 93 percent, while financial progress has reached 78 percent.
