The Okhre view tower has added value to the already attractive Sanghurigadhi Rural Municipality in Dhankuta.
Okhre is located in Sanghurigadhi of Bhedetar VDC -5. Initially located in the Dadabazaar VDC, Okhre bazaar was shifted to ward-5 after restructuring of local bodies.
Although the tower, located on top of a hill, was built almost two years ago, a minimal number of visitors have been recorded for want of adequate publicity. Okhre is about two kilometers from Namje, and is situated on the highway connecting Bhedetar and Ravi.
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The Tourism Department of Kakadbhitta had built the tower in three years’ time. A budget of Rs 1.3 million was spent in the first year of construction, Rs 0.5 million in the second year to build two picnic spots, and Rs 1.5 million was used to build a pathway up to the tower in the third year, informed Sub-engineer of the project, Thirendra Dahal.
"In three years' time, a budget of approximately 2.8 million was spent for the tower,” said Dahal.
The tower provides a view of Namje Village, Daadabazaar, and beautiful Himalayan range. The 40-ft tall tower was built entirely with grills.
The view tower, meanwhile, has opened up business possibilities for the locals residents as they have set up small ventures around the tower like fruit or vegetable shops targeted at the visitors. Though the number of visitors has slightly increased of late, lack of promotion and advertising are still major concerns of the hour.
Although millions of rupees were spent to build the tower, locals informed that the monument is not strong enough. The chairperson of Hotel Association of Bhedetar, Lilraj Lawati also expressed concern that the tower might have been built with substandard construction materials. Locals expressed fear that the tower might collapse if it is crowded.
Sub-engineer Dahal mentioned that the capacity of the tower was 20 people maximum at once. He added that he’d suggested the local communities to stick up a notice regarding the tower's capacity.
"We decided to build this tower here because no tourists visited this place earlier. If there was adequate budget, we could’ve built a stronger tower. The tower is not strong enough because it was built with mere one million rupees, while the rest of the budget was spent to build picnic spots and the pathway," Dahal said.
