This has reference to photo with the caption: “A couple pulling a motorbike from a muddy road after it got stuck in Thamel, Kathmandu, on Monday” (THT, May 15, Page 2). There were reports earlier that Thamel would open till 3am for tourists. Can one really enjoy walking past such a reprehensible, slushy road? We often read that billions of rupees have been sunk in the tourist facilities such as accommodations and amenities in Thamel. If so, it ought to have a lavish look of a Ginza or Shibuya or Sinjuku in Tokyo or a Golf Links in Delhi. To keep that looks, it becomes an inalienable responsibility of all the residents and businesses in the area to help keep the roads in good condition in coordination with the concerned authorities. Perhaps it can be done through Nepal’s winning formula: private-public partnership. Or maybe the people and the businesses can do it alone as they stand to gain the most from quality infrastructure in their front and backyards. In Nepal, the government is not always at fault for the deterioration of

infrastructure, particularly roads.

At times roads suffer immensely through apathy and abuse of the local inhabitants. I will cite an example for better understanding. The road in my area was once one of the best in the Valley. It took only a few years for the local residents, warehouses, water tankers and expensive schools to turn it into a dirt track replete with numerous potholes. First, overloaded trucks that are meant for heavy duty highways trample stress and chip away the tops and edges off the roads. Second, many residents drain water on to the road. Third, it is used as free parking for a number of school buses including the rented black-plated ones. Fourth, the schools use the road as free washing station for all their buses. These nefarious acts are more than enough to destroy the good health of our road.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu

Embankments

This is with reference to the news story “Municipality begins repairing dams” (THT, May 17, Page 5). The Paroha Municipality has now started repairing embankments damaged in the floods last year in Rautahat.

The last year’s heavy floods had damaged dams of the Bagmati and Lalbakaiya rivers in 31 places. The municipality started repairing the dams after the national media carried news about the municipality’s apathy to save lives, land and crops from flooding. It was the responsibility of the Water-Induced Disaster and River Control Division Office to repair the embankments. I doubt that the repair works being carried out right now, just a few weeks ahead of the monsoon, will be completed on time.

What were the concerned authorities doing for the whole year when they know that it was urgently needed to repair the broken embankments to save lives of thousands of people living close to the rivers?

Kumar Yadav, Gaur