KMC launches Tukucha cleaning programme

Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 14:

The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has started cleaning the Tukucha river. The holy river called Icchumati is more a drainage than a river because of the discharging of wastewater and sewerage into it. The KMC has started cleaning a section of the river at Kathmandu Plaza of Kamaladi and this process will go on for next two months, KMC officials said. Robin Man Shrestha, chief of the Urban Environment Section, said that selected sections of the river will be made free of solid waste and the KMC would give continuity to the river cleaning programme in regular intervals. “We will clean up the river in the Kamaladi area within two weeks and move towards Bag Bazaar. We have plans to extend the campaign beyond that as well,” Shrestha said. Earlier, in December 2003 the KMC launched an ambitious project to clean and broaden the Tukucha river but could not succeed. A study had revealed that the Tukucha river was 12-metre wide 30 years ago but now it has been encroached. In January 2004, the KMC started the Tukucha broadening programme with demolition of its office of Ward No 31 at Bagbazaar. But the programme was later abandoned.