Reconstruction of Nepal's quake-hit temple hits a roadblock

The reconstruction of the quake-hit Budhanilakantha Temple in Nepal has hit a roadblock due to inadequate budget allocations.

According to the Himalayan Times, the temple management committee had sent a proposal to Budhanilakantha Municipality for its reconstruction of 200 million Nepali rupees. However, the budget is yet to be released from the municipality.

Uddhav Prasad Kharel, the municipality chief of the region, said that the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) was yet to issue the budget allocation for the temple reconstruction.

The Budhanilakantha Temple is popular in Nepal. It is visited by both locals and foreigners in huge numbers. It consists of a full-bust statue of Lord Vishnu, who is sleeping over a Sheshnag (serpent).

The statue, which measures at least five metres tall, is a black stone structure carved from a single block of black basalt, positioned in the middle of a 13-metre long recessed pool of water.

Nepal was rocked by a massive earthquake in April 2015. It destroyed properties and various monuments and temples. It was the worst-ever disaster to struck in the country, killing over 9,000 people and rendering thousands of them homeless.

The quake also hit the Budhanilakantha temple and destroyed various physical infrastructures within the temple premises such as the Lord Shiva temple, Goddess Saraswati temple, and a boundary wall.