Kathmandu, June 7

The Ministry of Urban Development has unveiled a 38-point report card on its performance in the fiscal 2016/17.

The MoUD highlighted its key achievements in  during the period. According to the MoUD, it issued and implemented Urban Development Strategy, 2017 to make the urbanisation process planned and systematic. Similarly, Action Plan of New Urban Agenda, which was considered a milestone for the Third United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development-2016 held every 20 years, was approved and submitted to the UN and is expected to achieve adequate shelter for all and support economic growth.

The ministry also said that it decided to build 25,000 housing units for disadvantaged communities throughout the country in the next fiscal 2017-18 under the People’s Housing Programme. It aims to guarantee right to education, health, housing, employment, food and social security of people from disadvantaged and endangered communities.

The programme will be implemented by Department of Urban Development and Building Construction as per the People’s Housing Programme Implementation Procedure, 2017.

According to the report card, the MoUD made an amendment to the National Building Code as may be required in the wake of 2015 earthquakes to ensure resilient community. The NBC has been effective in all municipalities and the concerned rural municipalities that boast of over 1,000 housholds each.

“The ministry is working on draft of new Urban Development Act in the changed context to make it compatible with the federal set-up, and formulated and enforced Retrofitting Guidelines, 2017 for retrofitting of vulnerable structures,” said the report card.

It also approved Alternative Building Materials that encompass 14 models of building/housing. The models mainly focus on building houses for people who were rendered homeless in the 2015 earthquakes.

The report card highlighted that the MoUD gave the final push for the construction of the outer ring road in Kathmandu Valley. The ambitious project was shelved for 13 years. A Detailed Project Report of 6.6 km Chobhar-Satungal stretch of the ring road has been approved for its construction in the first phase besides determining its four corners for land pooling.

“The ministry also decided to initiate the development of four satellite cities in as many cardinal directions of the Valley through land pooling system and check illegal plotting of the land.

Conceptually, satellite cities are self-sufficient small cities outside the metropolitan areas, but are interconnected due to the suburban expansion of the larger metropolis,” it read. The budget for the development of four satellite cities is estimated at Rs 6,500 billion (Rs 1,300 billion by public sector and Rs. 5,200 billion by private sector).