The 30-month period agreed to complete the construction of the Gautam Buddha International Cricket Stadium is ending in mid-December.

Bharatpur Metropolitan City, in partnership with the Bagmati Province Government, had signed an agreement with Himalayan Kalinchowk BBR JV on 23 Ashad 2081 to complete the construction of the stadium at a cost of 785 million. As per the agreement, only 50 percent of the work that has started has been completed so far.

The pace of the construction of the stadium, which has been delayed due to lack of staff and construction materials, is expected to slow down further. The current price increase in construction materials is expected to affect this stadium as well.

‘The work has been done so far, but now the pace of construction is gradually slowing down. I see it difficult to complete the stadium on time as construction contractors have stopped work due to the recent price increases,’ said Santosh Acharya, Senior Division Engineer of Bharatpur Metropolitan City. He said that coordination is being done with the construction company to resolve all the problems and complete the work within the next month.

He said that the problem is arising because the budget allocated by the Bagmati Province government has not been released on time. ‘The construction company is struggling to release the budget, and the problem is arising due to the delay in releasing the money from Bagmati Province,’ Acharya said.

The financial progress of the cricket stadium being constructed in Bharatpur Metropolitan City-15 is about 45 percent, while the physical progress has reached 50 percent. Work on the construction of the field in the stadium has now begun. Preparations are underway to plant Bermuda grass on the field before the start of the rainy season. For that, work is currently underway to level the field and install drainage pipes for water drainage, informed Dharmendra Gupta, project manager of the construction company BBR JV. ‘The construction of the parapet and VIP tower had already started, now the electrical and sanitary work has started as a new work,’ said Gupta, ‘We have also moved forward with the ground work so that Bermuda grass can be planted on the ground before the rainy season, so that the rain can manage it better. The work of constructing a standard ground is underway based on new technology.’

The construction of the parapet of three blocks out of the four blocks of parapet in the stadium has now been completed. The formwork has been installed on one column of the last parapet. The slope of both floors of the two VIP towers has been completed. Currently, the work of attaching bricks and plastering the interior of the first tower is underway. Since the contractor of the second tower has died, no further work has progressed after the slope of the second floor. The work of attaching bricks and plastering the interior has not yet started.

Work has been progressed on laying drainage pipes in the field for the construction of a standard field. This drainage will help in quickly draining the water from the field when it rains.

A large 550 KVA generator has been installed under the electric system. Electricity transfer has also been brought to the construction area, while underground electricity wires are being laid around the stadium, said Project Manager Gupta.

According to the first phase of the work agreement, the stadium will have a 15,000-capacity parapet, an international-standard field and pitch, two VIP towers, and a scoreboard. According to this agreement, when the construction is completed, there will be no chairs and floodlights in the stadium.

Since floodlights and chairs in the parapet are required to make the stadium a fully international standard, the metropolis has sought the support of the federal government for the construction of these infrastructures. For that, the metropolis is preparing to request a budget from the federal and provincial governments for the upcoming fiscal year 2083/84 with all the estimates, said the acting chief of the metropolis, Chitrasen Adhikari.

‘As per the agreement, the stadium construction work will be completed within the month of Push, before that, chairs and floodlights are required in important parafits to complete the stadium,’ said the acting metropolitan chief, ‘Since floodlights and chairs are very necessary, we have taken a decision from the executive and moved forward to request the necessary budget from the federal and provincial governments.’

The metropolis has estimated the cost of installing chairs at around 100 million and the budget of 50 to 70 million for installing floodlights. The metropolitan provincial and federal governments are going to request the budget there.

Considering the possibility that there may be problems in playing games during the day due to the extreme heat in Chitwan, the metropolis has prioritized the installation of floodlights for night games. The metropolis is also preparing to develop a procedure for operating the stadium. The stadium had been abandoned for a long time after the Dhurmus-Suntali Foundation handed over the ownership of the stadium to the Bharatpur Metropolitan City due to financial constraints. After that, the metropolis resumed the construction of the stadium with a 70 percent cost share from Bagmati Province and 30 percent from the metropolis. The foundation had signed an agreement with the Bharatpur Metropolitan City in Kathmandu on Magh 16, 2075, to build Nepal's first state-of-the-art cricket stadium with a capacity of 30,000 by raising funds. The construction of the stadium, which had begun with the intention of building a multi-purpose stadium at a cost of 3 billion, began to face financial constraints after the Covid pandemic. After incurring a debt of more than 180 million rupees while building the stadium, Foundation Chairman Sitaram Kattel had transferred the ownership of the stadium to the Bharatpur Metropolitan City as agreed.