The Nepal Army (NA) will rent the modern building, built for hospital, for commercial purpose.
The building at the heart of Kathmandu city in Mahankal built for Tri-Chandra Military Hospital will be leased to Everest Enterprises of Chandra Bahadur Shrestha for 15 years at around Rs 500 million per year.
The NA will rent around 285,000 square foot of the 330,000-square feet building to Everest Enterprises. "We have agreed to lease the building at around Rs 500 million per year. The NA will hand over the building to us once construction of the outer part of the building is completed," Shrestha told Setopati.
"We are preparing about ways to use the 285,000 square feet of the building we have leased." He revealed that the NA will use the 45,000 square feet at the front part of the building itself.
NA Spokesperson Brigadier General Gokul Bhandari said the institution will later decide about what to do with the 45,000 square feet kept for the purpose of health service. "We will do the finishing of the space for our use ourselves. Everest will do the finishing in the rest of the space," Spokeserson Bhandari told Setopati. "The space equal to that the hospital building there earlier had will be used for health service," he added.
The map at the time of starting construction had a design for 14-story building. The NA had decided to build a modern hospital there to provide quality health service even to the commoners through the 14-story building.
The NA had argued that the hospital at the center of the city could provide service even at the time of disasters. The NA had claimed then that the open space of Tundikhel in front of the hospital would make disaster management easier.
But the design was changed after the earthquake of April 2015 and it was constructed as a nine-story building including two stories under the ground.
NA Spokesperson Bhandari claimed the money earned from rent of the building will be used to provide health services in other parts of the country.
The then NA chief Gaurav Shumsher Rana wanted to operate the hospital in some floors of the building before his retirement in July, 2015. But the earthquake in April put paid to that plan.
There was debate about whether to operate a hospital in the building or not after that. Around Rs 1 billion has been spent in construction until now, according to the NA. NA sources claimed that the NA changed its plans as buying equipment for the hospital would have cost another Rs 3 billion.
NA was not sure whether it was feasible to operate a hospital by investing such a huge amount and the majority of the space of the building constructed for the 90-year-old Tri-Chandra Military Hospital has eventually been leased for commercial purpose.
There is displeasure about the decision even inside the NA. "Quality service could have been provided to the President and other top government office-bearers and even commoners in the nine-story building," an NA officer told Setopati requesting anonymity. "The building has been leased for commercial purpose as the NA looked for immediate gains instead of long-term vision," the officer rued.
NA sources claim the then NA chief Rana wanted to operate hospital there presuming the government would provide finances if there were lack of budget for the NA to operate it on its own.
The debate for using only some parts of the building as hospital started once Rajendra Chhetri succeeded Rana as NA chief. NA sources claim the NA is preparing to lease even the remaining space it has kept for itself to operate city clinic and pharmacies even as NA Spokesperson Bhandari claimed that the NA has yet to discuss about the use of that space.
The 90-year-old hospital was built with British aid after the First World War for treatment of the injured soldiers. It was considered among the best military hospitals in South Asia then.
One needs to seek permission from the Department of Archaeology to demolish structures 100 years old or older than that. The NA demolished the building itself as it was only 90 years old.
The NA did not even pass the map for the design of the building through the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
