Kathmandu. The parliament session which has been held outside Singha Durbar since May 2008 following the election to the Constituent Assembly (CA) is going to be held in Singha Durbar after a gap of 17 years.

The meeting of the House of Representatives is now taking place in its under-construction building at Singha Durbar. The swearing-in ceremony of 275 newly elected members of the House of Representatives is scheduled for 2:00 pm on March 26 in the same building.

After the formation of the 601-member Constituent Assembly (CA) through the election held on April 12, 2008, the old parliament (gallery meeting) building was congested, hence the parliament session was being held at the International Convention Centre in New Baneshwor. Before the Constituent Assembly (CA), the parliament meeting used to be held in the old parliament gallery building at Singha Durbar. Nepal’s parliamentary history, which began in 2016 BS, began from the same building.

The building of the International Convention Centre in Baneshwor was destroyed in a fire that occurred during the Genji movement on September 7 and 24. The meeting of the National Assembly has been taking place at the Agriculture Committee meeting hall in Singha Durbar on a temporary basis since January 18.

The Federal Parliament Secretariat had signed an agreement with the International Convention Centre Development Committee to pay Rs 56 million annually for the Constituent Assembly meetings from June 2065. According to Committee’s senior programme coordinator Dipendra Bikram Singh, the rent was increased by 10 per cent every year and it had reached Rs 165 million annually.

Singha said the secretariat has been using eight different halls, special halls, parking lots, gardens and other halls spread over 153 ropanis of the committee for parliamentary activities. After the Jenji agitation, the Parliament Secretariat published a notice and unilaterally terminated the agreement since September.

The Federal Parliament Secretariat has decided to use the multi-purpose hall for the time being as it will take some more time to construct the main hall of the under-construction Parliament Building at Singha Durbar. Spokesperson of the Secretariat, Joint Secretary Ekram Giri, said that arrangements have been made for an alternative hall for the swearing-in ceremony and preliminary meeting. He said that alternative arrangements have been made for the time being as it will take some time to prepare the main hall.

Preparations have begun to call the meeting of the House of Representatives after the final election results are made public by the Election Commission. President Ram Chandra Poudel is scheduled to administer the oath of office and secrecy to newly elected senior-most member of the House of Representatives, Arjun Narsingh KC, at the Office of the President, Shital Niwas, on Wednesday.

Spokesperson Giri said that KC will administer oath of office and secrecy to all newly-elected members of the House of Representatives on March 24 in the new Parliament Building. According to Article 93 of the Constitution of Nepal, the President has to summon a session of the Federal Parliament within 30 days of the announcement of the final results of the election to the House of Representatives.

The foundation stone of the new parliament building was laid at the butterfly garden in Singha Durbar on September 15, 2019. According to Roshan Shrestha, deputy director general of the Department of Urban Development and Building Construction, most of the building work has been completed while some technical works are still pending.

According to the department, the civil construction of the parliament building is estimated to cost around Rs 5.50 billion to Rs 600 million while the additional cost of the interior will be Rs 2.34 billion. With the construction of the new Parliament building in over 151 ropanis of land, all functions of the Federal Parliament would be operated from this new structure.

It will have 12 buildings including buildings of House of Representatives and National Assembly, VVIP hall and other offices. There are eight main buildings inside the parliament building. The building will have a combined lobby with a capacity of 350 seats and 10 parliamentary party offices. Four additional special chambers, two buildings for the Parliament Secretariat and the Parliament Library have been constructed.