A Shameful Situation Of The Capital Valley

WHEN I visited Kathmandu recently what struck me the most was the feeling of great shame. The failure I am talking about is in the planned development of our beautiful Kathmandu valley and its big and small townships. The sense of shame sank deeper because I myself having studied urban planning used to work in a concerned department

When I started working at the Department of Housing, Building and Physical Planning in the year 1970, the Department had done some commendable works. For example, some very important cultural/architectural sites were declared as ‘monument zones’ and some regulations were formulated to ensure that these zones remained undisturbed aesthetically.

The other important work done was the formulation of a Physical Development Plan for the Kathmandu Valley. The work done, if I think in retrospective, was excellent. It had foreseen virtually every aspect of planned development of the whole valley.

The concept of three types of ringroad was floated the first inner ring road was meant to decongest the core area from vehicular traffic. The Bishnumati link road was foreseen as an important road which would help divert traffic in the core. This road never got built even though 20 years later the funding had become available from ADB loans. It was cancelled because of the incompetency of the metropolitan authority.

The proposed mid-ring road corresponds almost exactly to the present ring road built with Chinese bilateral assistance. This ring road is both a blessing and curse for the valley. Blessing because it did help to decongest the city core by opening up new areas. Curse because it had led to uncontrolled and haphazard urban expansion.

The outer ring road is yet to be materialised. But this is something which may solve our present urban chaos.

It is a shamful failure. We had a physical development master plan some 30 years ago. In this period a large pool of manpower had been trained in best universities. Urban planning had received ‘royal patronage’ with the establishment of a ‘planning team’ and the ‘implementation committees’. Yet our planners could not deliver. They were too busy exercising ‘control’ power and not concentrating on ‘creative’ planning.

The resultant effect is the present chaos in the valley. In 30 years Kathmandu has become the ugliest capital with choking air and has turned into a place where people may easily catch asthma.

What is needed? I guess the situation has deteroriated to the extent that an initiative at the highest level has to be launched to tackle the problem. Such initiative must be devoid of political meddling.

Adarsha Tuladhar
UNDP East Timor

25 Years Ago
September 13, 1976

Eight Years’ Case For 15 Paisa

Kathmandu, Sept. 12:A simple case of theft took the local administration about eight years to give a verdict on. The accused was fined just 15 paisa and that too in absentia, reports RSS.