Razen Manandhar

Kathmandu, June 16:

The government will soon come up with a policy to regulate the sprawling urban development. “The draft of the National Urban Policy (NUP) 2062 is almost ready. We will start discussing it soon,” Dr Mahendra Subba, senior divisional engineer at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (DHUD), said today. The policy will help achieve a “National Urban Framework” and contribute to poverty reduction and sustainable development by improving relations between the urban and rural areas. According to the yet unpublished draft of the policy, North-South Corridors to connect the Himalayan and Terai regions will be developed. It also targets setting up of Regional Urban Centres at each development region.

The policy seeks to formulate separate laws for urban land development and impose extra tax on large open areas in the cities. Among other things, it also seeks to develop relations with municipalities and the Town Development Committees. It further plans to promote public transportation system with the use of electrical vehicles and improve road network in cities. The government will start levying Development Fees, Integrated Property Tax, Tax Incremental Financing and Municipal Bo-nds to generate funds for the programmes planned.