BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Keeping the heritage alive

By A Staff Reporter

What would one do with a piece of land at a prime location? Many would pull down the old structures and construct a concrete high-rise for an office or an apartment bloc. Preservation and business often do not go hand-in-hand.

Baber Mahal Revisited however, is a big step forward to change that concept. It is a business complex, with shops and restaurants. It is an attempt to restore a traditional building and revive the old style of construction. The complex was created thanks to the artistic taste of Gautam (Jeetu) Rana, 42, the Managing Director of the Baber Mahal Revisited.

Gautam Rana at his office in Baber Mahal Revisited.

The Baber Mahal Revisited is actually a small part of the bigger Babar Mahal, or palace that belonged to Babar Shumsher Rana. This and other Rana palaces were nationalised in 1966. Most of them at present, house the government offices, and worse, many of them are crumbling down due to lack of maintenance and preservation. A small part of the building, originally the cow shed and carriage house, were returned to Babar Shumsher’s family  as compensation in 1980.

Rana says, he had always wanted to do something which would show what the old neoclassical architecture of Nepal is all about. Then he found an American architecture - a very famous restoration architecture, who had a similar vision. The man and rana got along so famously, that now he is also the executive director of Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust, an NGO based in the USA.

Then the whole concept of replicating the original Babar Mahal cropped up. Rana says it is like paying homage to his great grandfather, Baber Shumsher. “We decided to blend the Rana architecture with our traditional Newar architecture. “

 The first courtyard at the Baber Mahal Revisited is a copy of the Thapathali Durbar, built by Jung Bahadur, the first Rana Prime Minister. The two other courtyards are taken from Patan. Rana says the only two problems he faced  in restoring the place was damp-proofing and making the whole structure earthquake-proofing. “Only in these two aspects  have we used the high-tech knowledge that is available,” he says.

The Baber Mahal Revisited is a classic example of how old buildings can be restored or replicated and old style of architecture  be revived. Rana says, “I did it for artistic satisfaction.” Rana, as programme director of the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust, has contributed towards preserving other monuments. The Trust has already restored 12 temples in the last 9 years.

Painting was his favourite subject in school. He did his schooling from Lawrence School in Simla. But he quit it because  the subject was not offered in the college.  He did his BA Honours in English from North Point Darjeeling. Then he went to Nuremberg, Germany for Business Administration and to work for one year. “There I actually learnt to work”, he says. And a good example of his work is there for all to see and enjoy.

School children perform at Annapurna

By A Staff Reporter

Hotel De L’Annapurna, Kathmandu, since April 1997, has been sponsoring four poor children/orphans for their education and boarding in an Orphanage/School named Buddha Academy Situated at Jorpati, Kathmandu.

Buddha Academy has made tremendous progress in providing and educating poor and destitute children of Himalayan region with the sole aim of giving a better education to them and also helping them preserve their unique cultural identity.

A team of official from Hotel De L’Annapurna recently visited the school with Christmas gifts to the children being sponsored by the Hotel. The officials were shown a typical Tibetan musical performance by the teachers and students of the School.

The officials, delighted by the sensational performance of the teachers and children requested them to perform a Tibetan Musical Programme at the Hotel.

Accordingly a musical programme was held by the School team at Hotel De L’Annapurna on 23rd December 1999 which was observed and highly appreciated by the guests of the Hotel. A dinner was also hosted by the Hotel for the musical team consisting of 7 students and 3 teachers of Buddha Academy School.

Nepal to finally receive power from India

Nepal will start getting electricity from an Indian power plant from the start of year 2000, ending nearly a decade-long row between the two South Asian neighbours, officials said in Kathmandu last week.

“The regular supply of electricity to us from Tanakpur will start from January 1,” Rabindra Bahadur Shrestha, a senior official of the state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) told Reuters.

Shrestha said a 15-km transmission line from India’s 120-megawatt Tanakpur hydro-electric facility to Nepal was ready and technicians were carrying out trial runs.

In 1991, Nepal leased India a small stretch of Nepali land to complete a portion of the Tanakpur dam in return for 10 million units of free electricity annually.

But the deal ran into controversy when the Kingdom’s communist opposition insisted Kathmandu be entitled to more benefits from the facility, built in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh on the Mahakali river on Nepal’s western border.

India later increased the amount of free power to Nepal to 70 million units.

Officials said the free power would help improve erratic electricity supply in several Nepali village, which add to delays in power provision that  occur due to a lack of transmission lines.

In 1996, India and Nepal also signed the Mahakali river treaty, setting out terms for the construction of a $3-billion dam complex to generate hydroelectric power and for irrigation purposes, but a dispute over how the water should be shared has delayed the project. Only 15 per cent of Nepalis, among the poorest people in the world, have access to electricity.

— Reuters