KATHMAND, Aug 11: The government is spending nearly Rs 420 million to reconstruct and repair the ministerial residences in Bhaisepati, Lalitpur, which were set on fire during the Gen Z movement.
The government signed contracts with construction companies in May for the reconstruction and repair work. According to Arun Bhujel, information officer at the Federal Secretariat Construction and Management Office under the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, the work is currently underway and is scheduled to be completed by mid-October.
“Reconstruction and maintenance work is currently underway at the Bhaisepati ministerial residences,” Bhujel said.
Once the work is completed, ministers currently living at the Pulchowk ministerial quarters and in private residences will gradually be moved to Bhaisepati based on priority.
The work has been divided into three phases. A contract worth Rs 86 million was signed for the first phase, Rs 154.9 million for the second phase, and a separate Rs 178.9 million contract was awarded for furnishing and interior work. The total cost comes to Rs 419.8 million.
No official residences ready for incoming ministers
During the Gen Z movement on September 8 and 9 last year, 26 of the 27 residential blocks at Bhaisepati were set on fire. The only block that escaped the fire is currently occupied by Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal.
A joint technical team from the Secretariat and Special Building Project Office was formed to assess the damage caused by the fire.
“The team collected details of the vandalism and fire damage in each block,” Bhujel said. “However, we did not calculate the monetary value of the damage to each individual block. We only prepared an inventory of the damaged property.”
Ministers of the KP Sharma Oli-led government began moving into the Bhaisepati residences between June and August 2024. Within a year, the newly built residential complex was destroyed during the Gen Z movement.
The Bhaisepati ministerial residence complex was built at a cost of around Rs 3 billion. The government had signed a contract with KC Samantar JV in November 2019 to construct the complex, with an initial target of completing the work within two years. However, repeated deadline extensions delayed the project.
The government initially allocated Rs 1.034 billion for the first phase and continued allocating funds every year, eventually spending around Rs 3 billion to complete the entire project.
The complex includes 27 separate buildings for federal ministers, the chairperson and vice chairperson of the National Assembly, and the deputy speaker of the House of Representatives. Spread across 96 ropanis and 10 annas of land, each building occupies around seven annas.
Seven ministers living in government residences
At present, only seven ministers in the current government live in official residences, while the others stay in their private homes.
Infrastructure Development Minister Sunil Lamsal lives at the Bhaisepati ministerial residence. Six other ministers live in the older ministerial quarters at Pulchowk, which are also occupied by Supreme Court justices.
According to the Federal Secretariat, Home Minister Sudhan Gurung, Health and Food Safety Minister Nisha Mehta, Minister for Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Sobita Gautam, Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Biraj Bhakta Shrestha, Education and Sports Minister Sasmit Pokharel, and Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Minister Khadka Raj Poudel live at the Pulchowk ministerial residences.
The Federal Secretariat bears the management expenses of the official residence
