The Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM), together with the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), has completed the preliminary study on infrastructure for the administrative and parliament buildings in places where the government is likely to fix the provincial assembly headquarters temporarily.

A technical team from the MoUD, after the study in the respective places, has submitted its report to the OPMCM.

The study has been done in the places which were recommended as the probable headquarters by a committee led by the then minister for general administration Tek Bahadur Basnet in the last week of September.

Out of the seven provinces, the committee had recommended one name as provincial capital for three provinces, two names for two provinces each and three and four names for one province each.

It had recommended Janakpur as the headquarters of Province 2, Pokhara for Province 4 and Surkhet for Province 6.

The committee recommended Biratnagar, Itahari or Dhankuta as the probable capital for Province 1; Banepa, Dhulikhel, Hetauda or Kathmandu for Province 3; Dang or Butwal for Province 5 and Dipayal or Dhangadi for Province 7.

“Furnishing and other preparations will start after the Cabinet gives the green signal,” said Hari Prasad Panthi, spokesperson for the OPMCM.

The Cabinet will fix the headquarters immediately after the second phase of elections.

According to OPMCM Secretary Khag Raj Baral, the MoUD will be charged with furnishing, decoration and other physical works immediately after the Cabinet nod.

He also said that the criteria for selection of governors also have been readied.

The provincial headquarters fixed by the government, however, can be changed.

Article 288 (3) of the constitution authorises the government to fix temporary headquarters of the provinces while 288 (2) says, “The capital of a province shall be as decided by a two-thirds majority of the number of the then members of the concerned provincial assembly.”