Nepal's Education Minister Devendra Paudel and Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra jointly performed the groundbreaking ceremony of Nepal's largest library, the Tribhuvan University Central Library on Tuesday.
The building of Nepal's one of the biggest libraries is being built under Government of India's USD 50 million grant assistance in education sector.
"For this Central Library as well as about 40 campuses under the Tribhuwan University and construction of hundreds of schools, I thank the Government of India and Axim Bank," Education Minister Paudel said.
The Library is being constructed at a cost of NRs 316.9 million and will be built as per earthquake-resilient reconstruction norms of Nepal.
The new 3-storey building of Tribhuvan University Central library will be equipped with modern facilities and will include several academic sections along with ancillary facilities.
Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), premier institute in India in the field of earthquake-resilient reconstruction, will provide technical expertise for construction of this library.
A Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between the Ministry of Education, Science & Technology, Government of Nepal and Embassy of India for implementation of the project.
"The vision is to build all inclusive architectural infrastructure with modern facilities that define what a full-fledged library should be and to meet this vision, the embassy has taken a particular interest to ensure that this library is the best in structure and also in ease of its functioning. During the design phase of the library, the CBRI (Central Building Research Institute) premier institute in India in the field of earthquake-resilient reconstruction referred to the adopted best facilities in libraries of India," Indian Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra said addressing the event.
The Indian envoy also reiterated that this project was a testament to the multi-faceted, strong and robust development partnership between India and Nepal.
The ambassador stated that India remains committed to continue collaborating with Government of Nepal in socio-economic development.
India has committed USD 250 million earthquake reconstruction grant assistance to the Government of Nepal. Of this, USD 50 million is in the education sector under which 71 educational institutions across eight districts are being built; 14 of these have been already handed over and remaining are under active construction.
The present Tribhuvan University Central Library building was built with Government of India's assistance in 1967. Other major projects undertaken by Government of India in Tribhuvan University include construction of Gandhi Bhawan in 1973.
( With inputs from ANI )
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