Bagmati State’s Chief Minister Dormani Poudel has pledged to develop Makawanpur Gadhi (a historical fort at Makawanpur district) as a major tourist destination.

Addressing the 257th Victory Day organized at Makawanpur Gadhi on Friday, CM Poudel assured that works would be forwarded by keeping in mind the objective of attracting around 5,000 tourists to the Fort on a daily basis in future.

Stating that the Day observed here in commemoration of Nepal’s army (then known as Gorkhali Fauj) victory over the foreign army could be viewed as an important day to establish Nepal as an independent country, CM Poudel reiterated that the State government was all supportive to preserve and promote this historical site. "The 10th of Nepali month of Magh is a glorious day in the history of Nepal," said the CM.

Researcher Kedar Neupane, who had conducted a research on this battle field, said that the Nepal’s military with merely 400 trained armies in its troop and some ordinary army men had wreaked havoc against over 3,000 army men led by Nawab of Bengal (India), Mir Qasim, and subsequently defeated them on this day.

History records that the Nepali military led by Sardar Nandu Shah had seized more than 500 rifles from the Mir Qasim’s troop and had formed various Gulma (company) as Shreenath, Kalibox, Barda Bahadur and Sabuj and eventually laying a base for forming the Gurkha Gumla.

It is said that more than 1,700 armies of Mir Qasim were killed in the war while only 30 army men from Nepal’s side had lost their lives during the war that lasted for nearly two weeks.