Valley rides haphazard urbanisation tiger

SEP 28
AMRIT MAN TULADHAR

Urban planning has not been a priority in our country. In foreign countries, infrastructure such as roads, drinking water and other aspects are ensured before a house is built. A house can’t be just built anywhere. There are zoning laws that allow residential places to be built in certain areas. But, it is just the opposite in our case. That’s why Kathmandu Valley has one of the most haphazard urbanization scenarios in the world.

In recent years, there have been attempts by the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works to maintain the urbanization of the valley. The municipalities concerned too have conducted various studies in this regard. Unfortunately, these plans are limited to paper only. Among the various types of urban planning techniques, four types have been tried in Kathmandu Valley. First is, site and service, which means the government acquires land and plans it in a way to ensure easy accessibility of roads, drinking water, electricity, drainage and other infrastructure. Kuleshwor and Dallu areas are good examples of this method.

Landfill policy is the second method that has been used in the valley. The government makes land it owns available for settlement. Naya Bazaar and Gongabu areas fall under this type of planning. A similar method is being used in the ongoing planning at Liwali, Bhaktapur.  Service cost Guided Land Development (GLD), the third method, involves planning in the existing settlement. Road extension and interconnection are carried out under this scheme. New Baneshwor, Maharajgunj and Maiti Devi areas have gone through this process. The fourth, and probably the best method in the context of Kathmandu’s planning is the integrated action plan (IAP). It is more beneficial than the other three methods because it involves people’s participation.

People of a certain locality are called for discussion and asked to outline their needs. Planning is done as per the suggestions of the locals.  The IAP has been incorporated in the five-year plan of all the municipalities in Kathmandu Valley.  The main challenge in Kathmandu’s planning is ensuring public support for the project. It is hard to convince the people  as they fear they will lose their valuable land. Some even say it is not their concern whether people have proper access to infrastructure in the city.  Even in the first three methods of planning used in Kathmandu there are certain drawbacks. For instance, the site and service method is very costly for the government. Most of the time, people get compensation for their lost land but they do not get their ancestral land back. The government’s failure to settle the landless now residing along river banks has also exacerbated the valley’s plight.

Another challenge for Kathmandu Valley is that it cannot go through horizontal settlement expansion. It was our vision

to save at least 40 percent greenery in the valley but given the rate of immigration, perhaps the only solution is to stop further fragmentation of agricultural land for urbanization while focusing on high-rise buildings to save space.

(As told to Ankit Adhikari and Prasun Singh)

Published in The Kathmandu Post -- September 29