Apropos of the news story “Lack of MoUD synergy delays Outer Ring Road project” (THT, September 13, Page 16), it is a blessing in disguise for tourism.

It is also sweet music to those who detest the destruction of 8,000 ropani of fertile land that is inherently intertwined with the rich cultures of the Newar Valley, the strongest tourism USP.

No culture means no tourism in the country. In any case, after watching the messy fate of the broadened inner ring road in the past five years, it is easy to infer that the current policy makers and planners san plans and visions will take years just to dig the soil. So to stop these people from turning Kathmandu into a Valley of the dust, it is better that the project fails naturally or is shelved permanently. If the road is a must, they can put up an elevated ring road. Can’t they? As it is wanton and systematic destruction of nature has taken toll on bird life.

Most importantly, this Newar Valley needs to be preserved in totality for high-end tourists, not just in tiny piecemeal morsels like spicy sekuwas. If Nepalese politicians and public servants are worth their weight in gold, they should come up with a vision to turn Kathmandu into the Venice of the Himalayas or a Newar Margo-a-Lago Valley, a 500-dollar a night resort city. If not, they should desist from destroying 8,000 ropani of arable land and the rich cultures of the Valley painstakingly preserved over centuries by the grand Newars, Shahs and Rana oligarchy, to promote their new bullock-cart model of development.

The entire Kathmandu Valley should be converted into an exclusive high end tourism resort. There is, however, a hint of silver lining for cultural renaissance in the news story “NRA plans to turn palaces into hotels” (THT, September 15, Page 2).

This is a step in the right direction. But just converting Shah and Rana palaces into hotels will not suffice.

The Newar townships and markets like Ason, Indrachowk, Jhonche, Bungamati, Khokana etc must be restored to their original splendour and preserved in their entirety just like Kyoto or Nagoya in Japan and Little India in Singapore.

Manohar Shrestha, Kathmandu

Assistance

Recently there was a mutual agreement made between Nepal and  the US government where the latter has agreed to give the former economic assistance worth 500 million dollars.

The assistance program was the part of Millennium Corporate Challenge Compact whose main office is based nowhere else but in the United States.

The main purpose of this assistance program is to propel economic development and drive away poverty in the country.

US is one of the largest donors to Nepal, and this assistance is expected to become fruitful for the country in the days to come. Well the agreement is also the marking of Nepal-US diplomatic relation which dates back to 70 years.

Let’s hope the South Asian country makes the most of this very soon for the fact that we are still impoverished.

Pratik Shrestha, Buddhanagar