Kathmandu, Feb. 8: Bhaktapur Municipality has decided to proceed with the process for the reconstruction of Thanthu Durbar located at Ward No. 3 of Bhaktapur Municipality.

A meeting of the Municipality held on Monday under the chairmanship of Bhaktapur Municipality Mayor Sunil Prajapati decided to proceed with the process of the reconstruction work according to the revised map of Thanthu Durbar.

Mayor Prajapati said that the stakeholders had already agreed to reconstruct the Thanthu Palace in the old original style by adding soil. 

The reconstruction process of the palace will be carried out as per the revised map submitted by the Thanthu Durbar Building Reconstruction Technical Committee, he said. 

A team consisting of Director General of the Department of Archaeology (DoA) Saubhagya Pradhanang, Chief Archaeological Officer of DoA, Ram Bahadur Kunwar, senior archaeologist Kosh Acharya and Prof. Dr. Robin Cunningham of Durham University and Chief of National Art Museum, Aruna Nakarmi, had inspected the Thanthu Palace reconstruction site on December 28, 2023. 

Mayor Prajapati said that the reconstruction process of the palace would move ahead in coordination with the Department of Archeology.

Rajani Joshi, Deputy Mayor of Bhaktapur Municipality, said that the reconstruction of Thanthu Durbar was moving ahead as a pride project of Bhaktapur Municipality.

Aruna Nakarmi, chief of the Memorial Conservation and Palace Maintenance Centre, Bhaktapur, said the revised map of Thanthu Durbar was appropriate from the archaeological point of view.

Historian Purushottam Lochan Shrestha said that the 55-window palace of Bhaktapur Durbar Square Area has been seen as part of Thanthu Durbar.

The structural design of the palace reconstruction work has almost been completed, said Sunil Duwal, Professor of Khwopa Engineering College.

The soil quality, identification of soil source and sample testing of soil for reconstruction have been carried out, he said.