Lalitpur, September 13:

The concept of Arniko Bus Park proposed in January 2001 to accommodate tourist vehicles has been held in abeyance till date. The proposed bus park was to be built on two ropanis of land at LMC ward number six. But the site is being used by the locals to dump garbage. Though the programme to construct a new bus park was included in the list of programmes of LMC, the plan never came to fruition, said Prem Shrestha, secretary of Kani Bahal in Lalitpur. The bus park was purposed by the then mayor of Lalitpur Buddhi Raj Bajracharya in 2001 to facilitate the tourists visiting the Patan area. The new park and the purposed new route would would have facilitated the tourists by taking them to almost all heritage sites of the Patan area, starting from Pulchowk and ending at Kanibahal.

“Since the proposal was was put forward by the mayor and not elected local representatives, we could not implement it,” said Rudra Prasad Gautam, senior engineer at LMC, “ and though we included the project in last year’s fiscal programme of LMC, we didn’t have the budget to finance it.” However, Ashok Shrestha, another LMC representative, said that though the programme was included in this year’s fiscal programme, “we can allocate budget for it from our miscellaneous projects financing scheme.” “The estimated cost for the park is Rs 7 lakhs,” Prem Shrestha said.