Pokhara, October 26:

People here are blatantly disregarding building construction rules formulated by the Town Development Committee (TDC) and the Pokhara sub-metropolitan office and racing to outstrip one another in constructing buildings as tall as possible. At the rate the flouting of construction rules is going on, it won’t be long before Pokhara becomes an unsightly concrete jungle with its skyline marred forever.

Locals are forbidden to construct buildings higher than two floors in ward 6 (Baidam) and ward 17 (Chhorepatan) of the sub-metropolis. In other wards, buildings up to three floors are permitted. However, rules remain on paper and at least a third of the houses in the sub-metropolis exceed the height restriction regulation.

Sub-metropolis office spokesperson Ananta Koirala promised to punish the offenders. “Civic authorities will certify only those houses which have been built legally. Action will be taken against our own technical staff also if houses built in contravention of rules are found to have been certified.”According to latest statistics, there are 37,000 houses in the sub-metropolis. Directives were given during the tenure of the sub-metropolitan office’s former executive director Kedar Bahadur Bogati to conduct a study and demolish the houses built in contravention of the rules. The directives were never strictly implemented and currently there is a mad race among house owners to add storey after storey to their houses.

Another rule, which states that houses cannot be built within 50 metres on either side of the Seti river, has also been flouted merrily. Locals said the sub-metropolitan office has allowed people to build houses on the embankments of the river. At present, there is a public toilet right beside the Seti bridge.

Engineer at the sub-metropolitan office Kishan Gurung said a report of Nepal’s Geology and Mining Department and Germany’s Institute of Geosciences had pointed out in 1988 that construction of houses within 50 metres on either side of the river had geologically weakened the region. Technical experts have warned that if the rush to build houses haphazardly does not stop, Pokhara will become a mass of crude and ugly concrete structures. Figures in the map department of the sub-metropolitan office show that each year at least 1400 to 1500 new houses are being constructed here.