Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, July 5:

With the government’s approval for the long-term development concept of the Kathmandu Valley, the Kathmandu Valley Town Development Committee (KVTDC) is heading to make this dream come true. To save the forests and agricultural land of the Valley from encroachment, the concept proposes to accommodate 300 persons per hectare in urban areas. “If the encroachment of the forests and cultivable land goes on at the present rate, no such land would remain in the Valley in the next three decades,” said Dr Sunil Babu Shrestha, the leader of the study team which is identifying the concerned actors and preparing a detailed work plan for the implementation of the concept. Addressing a press conference organised by the KVTDC here today, Shrestha said that there is an urgent need to restrict people form constructing buildings at certain areas of the Valley. The long-term development concept has suggested that the ratio of habitat and cultivable land and forests should be 40:60. The data of 2000 suggests that 41.4 per cent of the Valley land is cultivable while 30 per cent is covered by forests.

According to a study, the urban area of 3,096 hectares in 1984 increased to 9,193 hectares in 2000. Another study shows that cultivable land in Kathmandu and Lalitpur decreased by three times between 1971-1991. With increasing urbanisation, 40,950 hectares of Valley’s cultivable

land in 1984 shrank to 27,570 hectares in 2000. This integrated development concept has been prepared for 16 VDCs of the Valley. Rs 1 million has been allocated for developing plans for Manamaiju, Khadka Bhadrakali, Mahankal, Bajrayogini, Suntole and Pukhulachhi VDCs.