Former Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru (right) and then king of Nepal Mahendra Vir Vikram Shah Deo at the foundation ceremony of Gandak barrage at Valmiki Nagar on May 4, 1964. Telegraph picture

Valmikinagar (Bagaha), March 4: A noble project to convert a guesthouse into a tourist hotel came a cropper as the contractor of the project stalled work midway.

In 2002, the project was handed over to the Bihar Tourism Development Corporation by the Gandak Project (irrigation department).

The contract was awarded to CS Constructions of Motihari by the public works department’s building unit at a cost of Rs 3.5 crore on 5 acres. The project started in 2006-2007 and was scheduled to complete within three-and-a-half years. By the time construction stopped, Rs 50 lakh had been drained.

Furthermore, instead of completing the earlier construction of the hotel, which was left mid-way, a fresh tender for renovation of an existing dormitory called Valmiki Vihar at a cost of Rs 2.9 crore, was finalised by the public works department (PWD).

Director of CS Constructions Chandra Shekhar Singh told The Telegraph that without giving any reason, the tourism department stopped the construction work of the hotel and the PWD was asked to refund the remaining amount of the allotment to the department.

He added a fresh contract for renovation of Valmiki Vihar has been awarded to Ravi Pathak Construction Company of Bagaha. But it landed into a controversy after one Pramod Singh of Bagaha filed a case in Patna High Court.

Pramod was the caretaker of the hotel whose contract with the Bihar state tourism development corporation is yet to expire.

The guesthouse, as well as the dormitory, had housed dignitaries of India and Nepal back in 1964. The former king of Nepal, Mahendra Vir Vikram Shah Deo, had laid the foundation stone of the Gandak barrage in the presence of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

Adviser to the All India Tharu Welfare Federation Deep Narayan Prasad, has requested the government to protect the heritage site. Vijay Kumar Gupta, the vice-president of Tharu human agriculture resource upliftment union, Harnatand (West Champaran), too, has urged the government to look into the matter and save the money from being wasted.

In letters to the chief minister Nitish Kumar, the principal secretary of the tourism department, the chairman, the managing director and the general manager of Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation Limited, Gupta has urged the government to look into the matter and questioned the justification of 5 acres of land lying unused at present.

The general manager of Bihar State Tourism Development Corporation, Ghanshyam Daphtuar, told The Telegraph that the renovation of the guesthouse would start from April this year.

He, however, failed to say why the construction of the hotel was stopped.