Kathmandu valley mapping programme has been working out an ambitious plan to create a corridor along with Dhobikhola river from Bagmati to Chabahil, said a mapping office source. “The engineering studies will begin next month,” he said.

Major three folds of the project include water treatment of the river, road construction and land development in the area by evacuating illegal settlers. “It will need a joint effort of the local people, Kathmandu Metropolitan Corporation, concerned official departments and NGOs,” he said.

The mapping office intends to complete the engineering studies within two months. The consumers committee will be formed soon after the completion of the study and complete mapping will be complete by the end of August. The project will accomplish the task within two years after the commencing of the works, the source said adding, “However, this project is going to be an ongoing process.”

The mapping office, according to the source, has taken up this project as an experiment to explore the possibilities to control unmanaged expansion of the settlements in the valley.

As the project is going to create residential areas by developing the land, success of the project depends upon local participation. One of the major challenges to the project is to fetch an alternative to prevent the Dhobikhola from being a local dumping site.

The project aims to construct a four kilometre road with four lanes from Bagmati to Chabahil where the new settlements will be created. The project officials hope that the existing traffic problems with increased numbers of the vehicles in the city will be reduced to some extent after the completion of the project. A feasibility study for the same, carried out jointly by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) had also submitted a positive report with recommendation to develop the project to construct internal ring-road for the valley.

The area at present lacks facilities like sewer system contributing to the never-ending problems of pollution. Thousands of newly settled families have impinged public lands to make as their own property. Evacuation of the illegal settlers from the area is yet another challenge before the project. The other factor, funds can also add to the list of challenges before this ambitious programme. “We are planning to charge money from local people, who will move in once the construction is over on the basis of the facilities they will be provided,” says the mapping official.

In spite of being a positive step, its success depends upon the attitude of the local politicians. People already occupying public land alongside the river have been settled in the area to serve the local politicians as their vote-bank in the elections. The land was encroached under the protection of the powerful people who would need the settlers again during elections. Officials are also aware of the fact but are determined to go on. “We know that it will be a difficult task to implement the decision without politicians support. But illegal act is an illegal act, no matter who does it. A bunch of people with political interest can not hurdle the development process.”