Kathmandu, May 11

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City and High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of the Bagmati Civilisation have intensified their programmes to clean and beautify the Bagmati River.

HPCIDBC said it had already constructed 28 parks on the banks of the Bagmati River as part of Bagmati green corridor project. “We have built parks in almost all available lands on the banks of the Bagmati River, except for squatter settlement areas,” informed project manager of the committee Rajesh Prasad Singh.

Singh said the Bagmati green corridor project was more feasible than KMC’s plan to plant large trees, as the latter would require larger open space. The committee had selected 35 park construction organisations from over 45 applications.

Meanwhile, the KMC has already begun the process of importing tree planting machines from India to plant large trees on the banks of the Bagmati River. According to KMC, the machines will be imported along with the road broomers it has purchased to control increasing dust pollution in the Valley.

Spokesperson at KMC Gyanendra Karki said the Ministry of Finance has already released a sum of Rs 9 crore, and another Rs 9 crore to import broomers and planting machines.

Up to three machines will reportedly be imported from India on the basis of their prices.

Earlier, KMC Executive Officer Eshor Raj Poudel had proposed to buy 10 road broomers to clean dusty roads in Kathmandu.