KATHMANDU, APRIL 12
Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has underscored the need of formulating a bill on urban development along with utility corridor to carry out development and construction works in a coordinated manner.
He also called for an end to the tendency of one utility agency constructing structures and the next one dismantling it after a few days due to lack of coordination.
The prime minister said this while inaugurating a consultative seminar on the Formulation of National Urban Policy, the Urban Development Act and the Utility Corridor Act here today.
The seminar was organised by the Ministry of Urban Development.
He said pilot projects would be initiated in some big cities from the coming fiscal year to implement the concept of utility corridor.
The PM said it was necessary to maintain population balance through the Tarai Madhes-focused Consolidated Urban Development Programme. "It (the programme) will be expanded to the municipalities in the mountainous and hilly region to discourage migration from the districts of these regions to the Tarai Madhes," he said.
PM Deuba said duplicity in development and construction works would be ended by amending and integrating legislation related to urban development.
He opined that there would be a change in the country's urban development scene with the formulation of the Act related to the utility corridor. According to him, the government will address the problems and challenges of urbanisation while increasing access to advanced national urban infrastructure through the new urban policy.
"This will help in proper resource mobilisation for urban development as well as in ensuring inter-governmental coordination and urban good governance," the PM asserted. Stating that Nepal is among the rapidly urbanising countries of the world, he said urbanisation played a great role in the overall development of the country, including its economic, social and political development.
PM Deuba stated that although Nepal had been making efforts at systematic urbanisation since the Second Five-Year Plan, the cities in the country have not developed as expected.
He stressed the need to develop systematic, clean, and beautiful new cities and at the same time managing the required infrastructure in the existing old cities.
"It is necessary to urgently start concrete works to bring improvements in the living standard of people living in urban areas," he said, adding that the Ministry of Urban Development had prepared the draft policy incorporating various dimensions of urban development, including major challenges, investment in infrastructure, urban governance requirements etc.
The PM said the draft policy emphasised coordinated plan formulation and implementation by the three tiers of the government through innovation in development of advanced and balanced urban system.
A version of this article appears in the print on April 13, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
