Kathmandu, December 18 The Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development has invited proposals from the municipalities interested in land pooling and development of integrated settlement in urban areas. In a letter sent to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City, and all sub-metropolitan cities and municipalities today, the ministry said any municipality willing to operate the programmes may send a proposal within 30 days. Clause 6 of the Urban Area Infrastructure Development Programme Operation Procedure, 2016 has provided for the provisions of land pooling, integrated settlement development and house pooling to make the municipal areas resilient to earthquakes. These programmes aspire to redevelop the city. “If more than 51 per cent house/land owner or at least 50 households of an area agree on integration of immovable property with allocation of certain percentage of land for road infrastructure and open space, the concerned municipality may initiate the integrated settlement programme,” read an exceprt of the letter. Prior to undertaking the programme, the municipality is required to submit a preliminary map of the area along with details of households involved. The map includes the total land area and number of houses. Integrated settlement should have a police beat, sub-health post, primary school, park and playground. “The concerned municipality will have cost participation in the development of integrated settlement. If the proposal submitted by the municipality is found appropriate and reasonable for the programme, the ministry proceeds with survey,” said an official at the MoFALD. Meanwhile, KMC has already announced its plan to introduce Urban Regeneration Programme through its fiscal budget of 2016/17. The programme will begin from Baidhya Chowk, Buddha Chowk and Kilagal Chowk in the core city areas and aims to beautify the areas that suffered damage from the earthquakes. A budget of Rs 30 million has been allocated for the programme.