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The owners of antique houses and structures in Kathmandu, including the municipalities, were yesterday encouraged to renovate the heritages in such a way that they can be used in modern days.
In a workshop organised by Japanese University of Tsukuba, in collaboration with Unesco and a couple of Nepalese universities, discussed adaptive reuse of historic buildings of Kathmandu Valley.
Speaking at the programme, Unesco Nepal’s head of office Axel Plathe stressed the need for public awareness to preserve and renovate the antique houses of Kathmandu, Xinhua reported.
“House owners should be made aware of the values that their historic buildings and houses bear,” he said. “Local community, municipality and owners of such antiques should be encouraged to renovate the historic structures rather than demolish them.”
Speaking at the same programme, Bhesh Dahal, of Nepal’s department of archaeology world heritage section, said that it was difficult to find similar stones or wood now to match the existing structures for their renovation.
Likewise, Tej Bajracharya, who claims to have owned a traditional house in Lalitpur district, lamented that the banks of Nepal do not provide loans for renovation of old houses, rather they seem more flexible towards customers who wish to build a new house.
“The central bank of Nepal should make certain provisions so that we (antique house owners) get easy loan to renovate our historic houses,” Bajracharya said.
However, Dr Nobuko Inaba, of Tsukuba University, opined that difficulties were just the excuses for not renovating the antiques.
Inaba said that municipalities concerned should prioritise repairing rather than rebuilding the historic structures.