Ten years after work began, the Nepali Academy has once again been promised completion, this time under a new political leadership.

Anit Thapa, the chief executive of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA), on Monday visited the under-construction site in Dali, about 4km from Darjeeling, and held a meeting with architects, engineers and officials.

He held out a new deadline. “We want to complete the project by March 2026,” said Thapa.

The work-in-progress Nepali Academy so far has seen three regimes in the GTA.

“The GTA approved funding for the construction of the Nepali Sahitya Academy Hall and Cultural Research Centre on July 16, 2014,” Binay Tamang told The Telegraph.

Tamang was the GTA Sabha member in charge of information and cultural affairs in 2014 when Bimal Gurung was heading the GTA. The academy was conceived by the then information and cultural affairs department. Construction work started from 2015.

Tamang replaced Gurung as the head of the GTA in 2017.

“I tried to push for completion of the project when I headed the GTA. I had also made a plan to involve many literary figures for the running of the academy once the construction was over,” said Tamang.

Sources in the GTA said that the construction of the Nepali Academy was included in the list of projects that the hill body would undertake as part of the special package the Centre promised when the GTA was formed in 2012.

The Centre promised a special package of ₹600 crore spread over three years and the amount was subsequently provided to the hill body.

“The GTA, however, took up projects worth more than ₹600 crore. Funds from the state plan also had to be used for various projects that were to be undertaken through central funds,” said a source.

The cost of building Nepali Academy was estimated at ₹23 crore. “Till date, ₹13 crore has been spent,” another source added.