LUMBINI, AUGUST 27

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has said development of clean and beautiful cities can ensure well managed urbanisation. He argued that Nepal was facing various sorts of disasters due to poorly planned and unmanaged cities.

PM Deuba said this at a programme organised to inaugurate an international conference centre built at Butwal Mandap of Butwal submetropolis today. Time has come for us to rebuild the old cities and manage the new ones. He mentioned that Butwal was making headway in urban development and believed that establishment of an international conference centre would help promote socioeconomic and educational development. The government would set criteria for running the centre soon, he informed.

The PM further reminded that with federalism in place, construction of development infrastructure was gaining pace at the local and provincial levels, which he hoped, would augment the urbanisation drive. He said, 'Uncontrolled migration will be curbed if modern urban development reaches people's settlements in rural areas.'

On the occasion, Home Minister Balkrishna Khand said the development in Butwal, the vicinity of Lumbini, would lay the foundation for development of entire country. National economy would be benefit with the development of Butwal, he argued.

He, however, admitted that although Gautam Buddha International Airport was brought into operation, it was yet to be run in a full-fledged way so that it could be developed as a dynamic economic hub. He shared the information that PM Deuba had requested his Indian counterpart to allow additional international air routes to the airport, he said, industrialists would be requested to formulate plan for the multidimensional use of the conference centre so that it could be linked to the national economy. He further informed that government would initiate construction of tunnel way at Daunne this very fiscal year. The government was effortful in addressing the problems facing the landless squatters by providing them land ownership certificates via the land commission, according to Minister Khand.

Similarly, former minister of finance Bishnu Poudel said development agenda was forwarded in Rupandehi.

Former minister of urban development Ram Kumari Jhankri suggested that the model of the operation of international conference centre could be based on trade and income.

Vice-chair of the National Planning Commission Bishwonath Poudel informed that the government would facilitate in preparing the operation model of the conference centre.

A version of this article appears in the print on August 28, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.