By Rup Narayan Dhakal : Pokhara—Goodluck Company Ptv. Ltd. Managing Director Milan Prasad Tiwari said that doing business fulfilling all the government rules and regulations is the right of his company. ‘Doing business is my right and our company’s right,’ he said in a press meet, ‘Pokhara Hong Kong Bazaar is our brand, so, we want to save our brand.’
The company has won the land-renting bid carried out by a government company Krishi Samagri Company Limited (KSCL) which owns that land at the old bus park area of Pokhara where a temporary shopping center called Hong Kong Bazaar has been operated for a decade.
There are more than four hundred small entrepreneurs who operate their small businesses building their stalls in Hong Kong Bazaar and have been protesting this bidding published on 4 April 2023 in Gorkhapatra National Daily, saying that they can’t afford heavily increased renting charges for their business shutters.
Before this bidding too, Mr. Tiwari personally had clinched an MoU with KSCL to get this land in rent but following the ending of renting tenure on 12 February 2023, the KSCL published a tender notice for a new contract that was won by Goodluck Company. The bid offer was for 3561 square meters of land but the shopping center also covers more land owned by the Pokhara Valley Urban Development Committee.
According to Tiwari, it is not he but the government who increased the rent charge of this land. He however claimed that the charge increment is natural as per the inflation rate and the entrepreneurs will feel easy with Goodluck as the old and new management of the bazaar are the same. The market was established some a decade ago to manage small entrepreneurs who used to run their businesses in the footpaths area of Pokhara.
What KSCL says about Pokhara Hong Kong Bazaar
According to KSCL Gandaki Province Chief Thakur Bastola, the bidding process is now ended and the contract also came into implementation on 27 July 2023. As per the contract, Goodluck will pay Rs 1456000 per month to KSCL which used to receive Rs 352000 per month from Mr. Tiwari. Hong Kong Bazaar Management Committee founding guardian Raj Kumar Subedi said that they will not allow Goodluck to enter the shopping center as they will be faded away if the new contract is implemented.
Leave a Reply