 |
Kathmandu Friday November 23, 2001 Marga 08, 2058.
|
Street naming system
This is in response to JD Baidya’s
"Funny street names" (in Letters column) on October 30, 2001, TKP.
Thank you so much for the sincere
appreciation being expressed on new metric addressing system recently implemented by the
Kathmandu Metropolitan City. I take this opportunity to describe the street naming system
being used in this addressing system. Though I am not a concerned municipal authority, I
feel worthwhile to clarify it since I have been involved in preparing the manual of this
addressing system. First, I would like to remind that except a few, most of the streets of
Kathmandu City do not have names. Whatever the names exist, as cited Thapathali and
Tripureswar for instance, they are locality or neighbourhood or Tol names (denoting
inhabitants living in a certain geographical area), but not street names. Because such
localities include several streets, lanes, courtyards or chauks within their own areas. If
we ask the inhabitants of one of the lanes of Thapathali, (for instance, "where do
you live?") we certainly get the answer ‘Thapathali’. So, it is difficult
to say exactly that which particular street belongs to Thapathali. This is a common
problem in Kathmandu as in other cities and towns of this country. Secondly, the KMC
authorities do not have right to give names to streets. According to the manual, name is
given to a particular street that is being collected from the local inhabitants, then the
street naming committee of KMC shall decide name for such street based on the given
criteria in the manual. I would like to request all others that please do not be confused
between locality or to name and street name.
Dr Pushkar K Pradhan
Geography Department, TU, Kirtipur |
