Manakamana temple and Cable Car to be opened from 13th December

8 December, Gorkha. The Manakamana temple, which has been closed for nine months due to coronavirus (Covid-19), will be reopened on December 13.

A meeting of stakeholders chaired by the Manakamana Temple Area Development Committee on Tuesday decided to reopen the temple and also operate cable car to the temple from Sunday. The temple and the cable car were closed on march to prevent and control the corona infection.

Executive Director of the Committee, Levendra Gurung, said that the temple will be operated by formulating procedures as per the Health Security Standards 2077 regarding the operation of religious places by the Culture Division.

“We have prepared a procedure to protect the Manakamana area from Kovid-19 by following the criteria of the culture department,” he said. “Devotees must follow the procedure.” According to the procedure, devotees have to maintain a physical distance of three feet while sitting in line. Gurung said that the mask has been made mandatory.

Currently, devotees will not be allowed to go inside the temple to worship. “Even though the temple is open, devotees are not allowed to go inside to worship. They have to visit the temple from outside. The flowers brought by the devotees will be offered by the priests,” said Gurung.

He informed that there would be no special worship in the temple and no animal sacrifice would be offered. He said that preparations are being made to write to the Kovid 19 Crisis Management Center in the district to coordinate the operation of the temple and cable car.

The cable car will come into operation

Ujwal Sherchan, deputy manager of Manakamana Darshan Pvt.ltd, said that the necessary maintenance work has been started since the temple is going to open.

“The maintenance work is almost over, the software, hardware and cleaning work is left. We can do everything in three days,” he said. He informed that ‘Standard Operation Procedure (SOP)’ has been formulated for health safety standards. According to him, the cable car will carry only half percent passengers than the previous one.

“Before, there were six passengers in a car, but now we have only three. We have made masks and sanitizers mandatory,” said Sherchan. He said that arrangements will also be made to measure the fever of the passengers at the main entrance of the cable car.