Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance, Vol. XXXI, No.

2, December, 2012 1  

Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A

Case of Public Community Participation
Govind Prasad Dhakal

Abstract
Modern urban planning practices began in Nepal after 1950, when the country was freed
from the clutches of the age-old feudocracy of the Ranas. The initiative for urban
planning practices were undertaken with the support of the United Nations when it, under
the request of the Government of Nepal, sent three people to sketch the urban policy,
urban planning and urban rules and regulations. Since then, Nepal passed through
different policies and planning phases for urban development, the planning of urban
areas has remained one of the low key areas till date. As a result, unplanned growth of
the major cities of Nepal with haphazardly built urban infrastructures having negative
consequences on urban environment can be seen in the form of clumsiness, crowding and
congestion, absence of security measures and lack of neighborhood continuum. In the
absence of the government’s visionary intervention with an integrated plan for urban
land management and development has now created difficulties in making cities well
circulated and livable. To overcome this sorry state, the government, from the 10th five
year plan, has begun a policy and plan for land development with the concept of site and
service and land pooling system with the partnership of the land owners so that the city’s
bad shape could be changed to a minimum functional city specifically for Kathmandu
Valley. Under this policy plan, the government, under the banner of Town Development
Committees has been engaged in planning for better urban areas. Some projects have
already been completed and some more are gaining ground. So, this paper aims to
examine the urban policy initiations by the government of Nepal and their implications in
urban planning, and has taken a case to see how the present practice of urban planning
under the strategy of community (land owners) participation is continuing. Today, the
question is how to resolve the conflict that arises from the public consumer participation
and what major implications of such practices would be in reform and management of
urban areas. Basically, the paper has been based on the secondary sources of
information, however, some discussion with officials and the stakeholders have also been
undertaken so as to understand the problems and their effect on planning.
To chop a tree quickly, spend twice the time sharpening your axe. Chinese proverb

1. Introduction commonly seen in the form of water

It is well-known that the Kathmandu
Valley towns and other urban areas of
Nepal are facing planning problems
coupled with environmental and
management problems. These are
logging during the monsoon, traffic
jams and pollution in major parts of the
valley- Kalanki, Balkhu, Gangabu,
Narayangopal Chowk, Chabahil,
Gaushala, New and Old Baneswor,
Putali Sadak, Jamal, Thapathali,
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  Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A Case of Public Community Participation
Tripureswor to Kalimati areas just to
name for few. Whatever infrastructure
services are available in Kathmandu
Valley are either very sub-standard or
not functioning at all. Problems of
roads, drains, sewerage, lighting,
distribution of drinking water are very
widespread and the residents of the
Valley have become accustomed to
these issues of very sub-standard
services. Though the government in the
past had given much emphasis to urban
planning and urban management in the
Valley with the support of the donor
agencies, however, majority of them
have remained merely as beautiful
reports, with little implementation.
However, in recent days, the
government has opted to launch urban
planning practices in the form of land
pooling, where community participation
as consumers in the planning and the
development of the land into modern
housing is adopted.
History of Urban Planning and
Nepal
Planning decisions are political by
nature and have basically four types-
traditional, democratic, equity (hybrid of
socialist and democratic) and
incremental (Gann, 1968). Traditional
planners are accused of imposing their
version in planning whereas the
democratic planners call for top down to
a participatory planning process.
Modern urban planning practice is found
to have actually begun when the First
World War gave a death blow to laissez
faire (Sutcliffe, 1980, 2-3), however, it
received a new stimulus after the
Second World War. The planning was
supported by passing the general
planning legislations with an example of
British Town and Country Planning
Legislation 1909 which is perhaps the
best known example. Nepal followed
the suit only in 1976 by creating a
separate planning and urban
development authority as Kathmandu
Valley Town Development Committee,
which is now converted into Kathmandu
Valley Town Development Authority
under the Kathmandu Valley
Development Authority Act 1988
similar to that of Delhi Development
Authority. To give full momentum to
the development of urban areas, the
government in 1988 created a separate
ministry- Ministry of Housing and
Physical Planning (now Ministry of
Physical Planning and Works). Now this
authority is headed by the former mayor
of Kathmandu Municipal Corporation
(KMC). This is how Nepal in line with
the international practices pursued the
planning practices institutionally.
General Objectives of Development
Plans
Development plans are the broader
components of the urban planning. In
the context of development planning,
urban planning occupies a small place.
In recent years, massive migration from
rural to urban areas has made the job of
urban planning not only aesthetic and
modernizing but has become a part of
social welfare. The development plan
generally covers the following
component in this text:
• Increase the overall rate of
investment
• Carry out special investment to
break bottlenecks in agricultural
production
 Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, December, 2012
• Improve coordination among
different parts of economy
• Embraces public as well as private
and NGOs
• National plan is coupled with
sectoral and local plans as envisaged
by the decentralization and principle
of subsidiary.
This paper focuses on how the private
sector as consumer is being used in the
urban planning practices and whether
this practice is successful
implementing the concept
decentralized planning for urban areas.
A government may create plans and
attempts to implement them but it can
never be assured of their being carried
out (Fainstein, S. and Norman Fainstein,
1996, 281). Though land is key to urban
planning and management, its supply is
scarce and its cost is very high. Urban
land use pattern is important to modern
cities but it is really impossible where
the settlement is already developed
without any plan. Without proper urban
land use pattern, the planners and urban
managers would find it difficult to
implement the urban policies and plans
in the desired way. The urban land use
pattern not only determines the
settlement patterns but also determines
the quality of services to be provided to
the residents which impacts living and
working conditions of the urbanites
(Dhakal, 1995, 87). Land availability
and its utilization, therefore, are vital for
urban planning and urban development
though costly and scare. In the
participatory planning, it is believed,
that the issue of cost of urban land and
non-availability can be minimized to
some extent when the land owners as
3
consumer participate in planning their
land,
Importance of Participatory Planning
Participation is the mental and
emotional involvement of people in
group situations that encourages them to
contribute to group goals and share
responsibility for them. That
participation regards people as adults
and, hence, people also will respond as
adults is the basic philosophical
in
response of the participatory planning
of
with the communities. The public
participation in decision making,
implementation, monitoring and
evaluation, and benefit sharing of urban
planning is well taken by the public
itself. Goal, it is believed, will be
achieved only after the meaningful
participation of public with their
involvement from the low level to the
decision-making level. Participatory
planning also encourages planning to be
socially adaptable, culturally acceptable
and environmentally viable. Without
question, it imparts a sense of ownership
and control, management and skill
transfer, monitoring and evaluation and
follow-up and maintenance capability to
people, which is exactly what
decentralization planning process
expects.
Generally, public participation seeks and
facilitates the involvement of those
potentially affected by or interested in a
decision. The principle of public
participation holds that those who are
affected by a decision have a right to be
involved in the decision-making
process. Public participation implies that
the public's contribution will influence
the decision.
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  Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A Case of Public Community Participation
Objective of Participatory Planning
The objective of participatory planning
is to create a platform for learning rather
than plunging directly into problem
solving. The process is expected to
enhance (Joshi, 2008, KVTDC, 2012) as
follows:
• Identification of the felt needs of the
people and bringing forth consensus
among them.
• Empowerment of local
disadvantaged groups
• Integration of local knowledge
system into project design
• Two-way learning process between
the project and local people
Legal and Institutional Bases of
Planning in Nepal
The initiation of planning was first
begun in Nepal after the establishment
of democratic polity in Nepal. The first
such institution- Upatyaka Nirman
Samiti (Valley Construction Committee)
- was a five-member committee formed
in 1952 with the mandate of preparing a
planned urban development of the main
centers of the Kathmandu Valley.
However, a conflict between the
committee and the Road and Building
Department ultimately led to the demise
of the committee. This committee was
replaced by a small town planning unit,
established under the Department of
Public Works and Building under UN
assistance.
Owing to the dearth of human resources
in the field of urban planning, the
government had decided to get technical
assistance from the UN. P. O. Lefvert
(1962-64), F. Ortner (1965-66) and Carl
Pruscha (HMG/N 1969) helped prepare
the first kind of master plan for Nepal,
in 1969, covering a number of aspects of
planning and conservation expecting to
be completed within 20 to 30 years
period. This plan was really extensive
though the government did not accept it
(Dhakal, 1995). This was followed by
another plan in 1976 known as the
Kathmandu Valley Physical
Development Plan, which was adopted
as policy document for the development
of the urban areas of the Kathmandu
Valley. This plan had a number of sub-
plans, such as urban design, residential
development, zoning, infrastructure
development, building regulations for
central core areas etc. Unfortunately,
this plan also remained in the file and
the course of urbanization went on
unabated without any guidance, thus,
leaving the Kathmandu Valley in the
natural process of development.
However, some achievements like
vegetable market, residential areas in
Dallu, Kuleshswor, and Galfutar were
made (KVTDC, 1984). With the support
of the USAID in 1986, the government
again prepared a study report as
Kathmandu Valley Urban policy The
study also suggested having land use
plan participating with the concerned
stake holders in urban land management
(see Planning and Development
Collaborative-PADCO). Even the
planning interest of urban areas was
shown in the regional planning of Nepal
(Gurung, 1969)
Planned Policies and Strategies in
Nepal
During the first five year plan (1956-
60), Nepal did not have basic
infrastructure services so attention was
paid to supply drinking water,
networking of roads and other
 Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, December, 2012
infrastructures. In the second five year
plan (1963-65), some major roads like
Kathmandu-Dakshinkali, Kathmandu-
Bauddhanath and Kathmandu-
Bhaktapur roads were constructed
however, no concrete work like urban
development management were done.
Even in the third plan (1965-70), the
concentration was basically on basic
services like drinking water supply and
solid waste disposal. However, the
government proposed to run "site and
service" program to build around 400
houses to be sold to the government
servants in the Kuleshor area of
Kathmandu, which was initially planned
to be built in Kalimati area. This project
was completed much later. In the fifth
plan also, there was little effort for the
integrated development of Kathmandu
and elsewhere in Nepal. The focus was
on the regional development plan.
During this plan, the government
declared five development regions viz.
Eastern Development Region, Central
Development Region, Western
Development Region, Mid-western
Development Region and Far
Development Region. In the fourth plan,
there were only four development region
and in the fifth the Midwestern
Development region was added for the
faster development of the country. In the
sixth plan, the government, with the
assistance of famous architect Kantz
Tange, prepared a master plan for the
development of Lumbini. It was realized
that the growing population of the urban
areas in Nepal would pose a threat to the
systematic development of the cities, so
planning the cities in accordance with
population growth was realized. In the
seventh plan, the government decided to
5
collect detailed information of the urban
areas so that the cities could be
developed into living places. The plans
emphasized on the local resource
mobilization, institutionalization of
urban reforms and prepare and
implement the development plans for
urban areas. The policies and plans of
the eighth plan were focused on the
establishment of a GIS center,
preservation of the agricultural land, and
prepare a national level master plan for
the transport sector. For the first time,
the government decided to provide
housing loan through the banks, and
encouraged the private housing
companies. In the ninth and tenth plan
also many policies and strategies were
adopted and even, with the assistance of
Asian Development Bank (ADB) a
comprehensive plan ((Halcro Fox et al,
1991) was prepared for the Kathmandu
Valley urban areas. However, most of
the policies and programs were not
implemented.
Now, the government, in the three-year
interim plan (2007, 414-15), accepted
the lack of urban development policy,
lack of coordination among the urban
agencies regarding physical
development plans, and unhealthy
competition between town development
committees and municipalities due to
overlapping the roles and
responsibilities, the urban development
function could not be implemented duly.
In the present context, the urban areas
are facing numerous challenges which
are:
• How to manage uncontrolled and
disorganized urban areas?
• How to manage adequate supply of
human resources to manage the
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  Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A Case of Public Community Participation
cities with adequate infrastructure
services?
• How to maintain coordination
among plethora of organizations
working in the field of urban
management? and
• How to provide the people easy
access to housing and other urban
services?
Now, the government seems concerned
about how to check the haphazard
growth of urban areas, and how to
strengthen the institutional capabilities
of the organizations engaged in urban
development.
Beginning of Local Planning
The Land Acquisition Act 1977
authorizes the government to acquire
land for the purpose of planned
development and for the extension of
the roads. However, the first district
level plan was prepared in 1974, where
the Chief District Officer (CDO) was
made the head and coordinator of the
works carried out in the district. The
underlying features were that the people
would be involved in the preparation,
implementation and evaluation of such
plans which were carried out by the
people.
The regional development plans also
focused on the urban development by
developing regional development
headquarters in five development
regions- Dhankuta in the East,
Kathmandu in the Mid, Pokhara in the
West, Surkhet in theMidwest and
Dipayal-Silgadi in the Far West. But,
these developments under regional
development efforts were totally
controlled by the government.
Similarly, theLocal Self Government
Act (LSGA) 1999 has made the
following provisions for participatory
and local level planning:
• Preparation of periodic and annual
plan for the purpose of Local Bodies
(LBs) (local governments in Nepal
are known as local bodies).
• Planning Commission and the
concerned ministry (Ministry of
Local Development- MLD) would
provide policy guidelines at the end
of Kartik (around the end of
November). These are the basics of
local plan preparation in Nepal.
In the periodic plans indicating
geographical, economic, and natural
resources and their use is necessary.
Similarly, the LBs have to identify the
comparative advantages of such plans
relating to productive possibility of the
area.
While preparing the plans the LBs have
to consider the following components:
• Focused on backward communities,
poverty stricken areas and already
running activities and the
development activities to be
undertaken in the future.
• Income generating and skill-based
programs for the women
• Implementing procedures and
maintenance provisions for the
completed ones
• Possible short-term and long-term
development plans and programs
• Human resource development plans
and programs prepared by the local
people
• Major considerations while
preparing plans and programs at the
local level
 Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, December, 2012
• Guidance
• District level policies and plans
prepared in line with the national
plans
• District level policy and plans
identified by the periodic plans
• Plans and projects received from
VDCs and Municipalities
Before planning takes place at the local
level, the LBs have to take a stock of the
resources available for successful
implementation of planning. These are:
• Own resource base to implement the
plan
• Block grant and other grants from
the government
• Sectoral investment grant received
from the sectoral ministries
• Other sources including NGOs and
INGOs.
Steps Followed in Participatory Planning
• Conduct local level meetings to
identify the needs of the people
• Mobilization of the people
• Adopting small group approach
• Preparation of a model agenda for
meeting
• Adopt a Semi-structured
questionnaire approach derived
from the Participatory Rural
Appraisal (PRA) techniques for
discussions
• Assessment of the local resources
and problems and accordingly
formulate development reports
• Generate a comprehensive database
for every locality for local level
planning
• Identification of significant
ecological variations in the area
through Rapid Rural Appraisal
(RRA) and PRA
7
• Preparation of development reports
that includes the information about
the local economic, social,
geographical and human resources
Formulation of Local Plans
• Choice of the projects and program
to be included in the annual plans
• Design the structure of plan
document and the procedures for its
adoption by the decision makers
• Adoption of resolution by the
elected representatives of the local
bodies that enunciates the inter-
sectoral and the intra-sectoral
priorities
• Higher levels have to coordinate,
integrate, and fill in the gaps of the
local plans
• Integration of local level plans with
the block or district level plans
• Appraisal and approval of plans by
an expert political commitment and
support
These are the general practices that are
followed in preparing the local level
plans. The Decentralization Act or the
Local Self Governance Act has made it
mandatory to follow these steps and
procedures while preparing the local
plans for the local areas. This indicates
that the people's participation is
involved in every step of planning, and
now this participatory practice in
planning of urban areas in land pooling
is being practiced.
Planning is basically a responsibility of
the Ministry of Physical Planning and
Works (recently it is converted into
Ministry of Urban Development, but is
to take its full shape). Under this
ministry, there are Departments and
Town Planning Committees which are
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  Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A Case of Public Community Participation
made responsible to the planning and
physical development of the urban
areas. Among them, the KVTDC is one
which is a high-level body chaired by
the Minister concerned. Similarly,
planning responsibilities are also given
to the municipalities. Besides this
ministry, the Ministry of Local
Development (MLD) is also responsible
for managing the human resources and
approving the budget and the rules and
regulations of the municipalities. The
chief executive officers and even
planning and finance officers are
deputed from this ministry. So, the
municipalities have dual institutional
responsibilities in planning and urban
management. The following paragraphs
will shed light on the planning
authorities in Nepal:
Planning Authorities in Nepal
1. Town Development Committees
The government has created planning
authorities in all the 58 municipalities,
and some VDCs which are called urban-
oriented VDCs, however, these planning
authorities are merely tooth-less and
jaw-less bodies. These committees do
not have sufficient budget and technical
competence from the viewpoint of
human resources, who can plan the
urban areas themselves nor can they
advise the municipalities in their own
capacity. Most of the committees are
without the planning officers, and their
authority is mostly challenged by the
municipalities.
Some planning authorities like KVTDC
(recently converted into authority) are
rather competent planning authority
with adequate human resource (114
employees including 4 engineers, 1
lawyer, 3 fiscal officers (KVTDC,
2011). The committee has 19 members
represented by the secretaries of the
seven ministries- Ministry of urban
development, home, water resources,
information and communication, forest
and soil conservation, law justice and
parliamentary affairs; Director General
of the Department of Urban
Development; Chairman of the
Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur
District Development Committees;
mayors of the five municipalities of the
valley; and is headed by the Minister of
Urban Development. The mandate of
the committee, in the long run, is to
(KVTDC, 2011):
• Gradually raising the standard of
living of the people of the
Kathmandu Valley; and
• To conserve and promote the man-
made and natural, historical,
religious and archeological
monuments and places.
The other short-term objectives (ibid):
• To control the haphazard growth of
the municipal areas and give the
right direction to the development of
the cities,
• To protect the agricultural and
pasture and forest land,
• To protect and improve the
archeological, natural and tourist
sites,
• To control the pressure on the city
core of Kathmandu, Patan and
Bhaktapur municipalities,
• To develop the residential places to
promote planned settlements,
• To initiate expansion of the city
development in the suitable places,
and
• To prepare land use plan so as to
 Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, December, 2012
develop the city zoning.
The KVTDC has also a Steering
Committee where mayors of the 5
municipalities of the Kathmandu Valley,
chief of the infrastructure services, chief
of the religious land trust, and the chief
planner of the KVTDC works as the
member-secretary of the committee.
Besides this steering committee, the
sub-committees can be formed to look
after the sectoral programs in the
planning of the development activities.
2. Municipalities’ Role in Planning
and Physical Development (LSGA,
1999, Article 96 (b))
Besides the Town Development
Committees, municipalities are also
entrusted the role of planning and
physical development of their cities. The
following are the mandates given to the
municipalities by the LSGA, 1999:
• To frame land use plan in the
municipal areas indicating
industrial, residential, recreational
and agricultural zones;
• To prepare housing plans and
implement them in their areas;
• To plan, operate, maintain and
repair the drinking water and
drainage;
• To plan and operate green belts,
parks and recreational areas;
• To manage public toilets;
• To approve the design of buildings
to be constructed in the municipal
areas; and
• To build community buildings and
rest houses.
Planning Modalities
The modalities adopted by the KVTDC
in planning are basically Guided Land
9
Development (GLD), Site and Service
and Land Pooling (for details see Joshi,
2008).
Guided Land Development
In the GLD planning, the committee,
under the request or by the government
intervention, opens up the road networks
in the unplanned land of the people
where it does or sometimes does not
charge for opening the track, building
retaining walls and gravelling the road
but the people will have to contribute
their land for the track. Till date, the
committee during 1988 to 1990 has
successfully opened around 300 km of
roads in Kathmandu, 137 km roads in
Patan and 38 km in Bhaktapur
municipal areas (KVTDC 2011). The
length and width of such road is 4, 6, 8,
and 11 meters.
Site and Service
It is another kind of planning adopted by
the KVTDC for the planning and
physical development. In this process of
planning, the committee purchases the
land and develops it into fully serviced
plots and sells them back to the public.
Kuleswor and Gulfutar are such projects
which were planned under site and
service and distributed as housing plots
to the public at current prices.
Land Pooling
In the land pooling type of planning, the
committee, under the request of the land
owners of a particular area to plan their
land, takes the application and conducts
the feasibility study of the area. The
basic of such planning is that the land
owners themselves contribute the cost of
the project by contributing around 30 to
35 per cent of the land as project cost.
10
  Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A Case of Public Community Participation
The practice is that some portion of the
land is set for sale in the market to
generate the resources. Till then, the
government lends the project cost from
a trust fund (at present, it is around Rs.
50 million), which is especially created
to fund the planning activities with an
annual interest of 13 per cent. A project
in charge with necessary staffs is
appointed by the committee. From the
discussion with the officials of the
committee, the average time to complete
a project is five to six years. The project
first collects all land ownership
certificates from the owners and designs
the plot for the road (around 22 per cent
of the total land), open space (around 5
per cent) and for others around 7 per
cent. The people then get a temporary
land ownership certificates from a sub-
committee formed for this purpose. The
committee also forms sub-committees
for every sectoral purpose of the
planning. The construction work of the
planning can be carried on by the
consumer society itself, but heavy works
like paving the roads, electricity works,
sewage and drinking water is carried out
through e-bidding. The limit of the work
of the consumer society is not more than
6 million at a time, but it can apply for
the second or third after clearing the
assigned tasks to the management of the
consumer society.
The following steps are taken in land
pooling kind of planning:
• Submission of the application to the
KVTDC by the community land
owners, with a request for the
development of their land into
modern plots in a planned way.
• Conducting a feasibility study of the
area identified for the plan by the
KVTDC.
• Formation of consumer society from
among the land owners.
• Public notice to hold the land by the
committee for re-plotting, re-
registration, physical development
and selling. However, one can sell
the land without re-plotting.
• Preparation of the detailed project
report (DPR)
• Formation of the management
committee and sub-committees for
dispensing the planning.
• Under the recommendation of the
consumer society, the management
committee puts forward the final
proposal to the KVTDC
• DPR also has to be approved by the
consumer society
• Action or implementation of the
project. Before the implementation,
around two years is needed to come
to implement the project and around
three years is generally taken to
finally complete the project in such
land pooling planning project.
Among the three planning strategies in
Nepal, land pooling is becoming
popularity since it is fully controlled by
the consumers, though the technical
component is totally managed by the
committee's project office. The
consumer society members are regularly
trying to minimize the cost and
maximize the number of plots so that
they would minimize the contribution of
the land in the project cost. While
discussing with the consumer society
members, it was found that they have
minimized the contribution of the land
to roads just by diverting the initial plan
but without affecting the planning
design.
 Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, December, 2012
Till date, the KVTDC has been
successful in completing physical
Table 1: Projects under Land Pooling
SN No. of
Projects
1. Completed projects 10
2. Ongoing projects 10
3. projects about to 2 1453
complete
Source: KVTDC 2011
From the above information, it seems
that this kind of project is quite popular
in the planning and physical
development of Kathmandu Valley.
That is why the committee is successful
in completing 10 projects, ten projects
are running and another two projects are
about to complete soon. Despite its
popularity and people’s participation,
the planning is not free from issues.
Emerging Issues in Land Pooling
Planning
Naturally, the planning under the
community participation might have
many conflicting interests (see Lee and
Courtney: 1988). Some are within the
community members and some others
are from outside the community.
However, three types of conflicts may
arise during planning phases in such
projects (discussion with the KVTDC
officials):
• Broker originated conflicts, In
Kathmandu Valley and elsewhere in
Nepal, most of the land is sold by
the brokers. This is because the
government is neither able to
intervene for the land management
nor is able to control the individual
11
development plans of ten areas under
the land pooling project (table 1)
Ropanis (5476 sq.ft. in Total Total road
one ropani) plots length
4366 10,779 78.52 km
7271 11,590 Not clear
2,581 21 km
developers from developing the
urban land in a planned way. So,
most of the land brokers are
working without registration. In one
way, a huge amount of money is
siphoned to such broker's pockets,
and thereby a huge amount of tax is
lost by the treasury. It is a kind of
incompetence. These brokers
informally intervene in such plan for
not letting it succeed because they
fear that planned development of the
land means losing the land for
brokering.
• Some of the land owners are holding
more land than that specified in their
land certificates. Naturally, these
people oppose such planned
development for fear of losing such
illegally captured land.
• The other people who oppose the
planned development of the land are
those who already have access roads
to their land. Naturally, they feel
that they would have to lose the land
for additional roads in the interest of
other and for increasing the prices of
other's lands. In planning, people
stand to lose around 32 to 35 per
cent of their lands for roads, open
12
  Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A Case of Public Community Participation
spaces and community halls.
• The other category of people who
oppose the planning in land pooling
are the farmers. Many people are
still surviving with farming in the
city areas. Not only this, some of the
farmers are enjoying farming in the
land of others but do not have to pay
anything to the landlords. So these
people have complaints against the
planning authorities
During the planning period, many
people are not satisfied with the
activities of the planning project. So,
they prefer to go to the project
implementation committee and
sometimes to the court complaining
against the planning authorities.
The other conflicts that generally arise
in the planning period are (Project office
of the Planning committee):
• Many cases come to the office
complaining about the size of the
land, and they must get a bigger size
land instead of the present one.
People feel that there must be some
wrongdoing on the part of the
planning management. This happens
just because of ignorance.
• Many people have not renewed their
registered land, so planning office
cannot maintain the record of those
people. Sometimes such land is
counted as public land. In the
meantime, some people come to
claim their land. So, the monitoring
and supervisory committee looks
after the cases and if the cases are
found to be genuine, the land owner
gets the serviced and developed
plot.
• Sometimes, public land is also
occupied by the people, so they
want that land to be registered under
their name. Their claim is that the
land has been used by them for
years. But, such cases are dismissed
in the consumer society meetings.
• The selection of the plot also
becomes a source of conflict since
everybody would like to have the
plot in commercial and advantaged
area which is not possible. Also,
many people would lose their land
at the same place where it was
because of the land size being too
small. In such a case, the planning
office has a provision to shift the
land or in case of total loss the
people are offered the current price
for their share or are asked to pay
more money to get additional land,
which sometimes becomes beyond
the reach of the people. In such
cases, settlement becomes quite
difficult.
The process to solve the case is that at
first the monitoring and supervision sub-
committee takes the case and tries to
arrive at settlement. If the claimant is
not satisfied, the case is forwarded to the
consumer society which, through
thorough discussion with its members,
tries to resolve the case. But, if the
claimant is still not satisfied, the case is
forwarded to the project implementation
office where most of the cases are
resolved. However, if the person is still
not satisfied, he/she can move the court.
Till date, none of the cases has been
won by the individual person
(discussion with project official).
Discussion
Planning in Nepal is not a new
phenomenon; the first was during the
 Nepalese Journal of Public Policy and Governance, Vol. XXXI, No. 2, December, 2012
1960s. After that, subsequent plans have
been formulated with or without the
cooperation of the donor community and
international donor agencies. The Nepali
plans, during the planning effort, had
mostly focused on reforming the
Kathmandu Valley so as to make it the
capital city, tourist city, cultural city and
so on. The regional concept was
introduced in Nepal for minimizing the
population pressure in Kathmandu
Valley and other big cities of Nepal.
Also, most of the plans were focused on
saving the major cities from congestion,
overcrowding, pollution and problem of
infrastructure services. But, during these
years, preparing and implementing a
comprehensive plan was missing. Most
of the areas were developed through the
concept of owner builder’s plan without
any strict land use plan and intervention
of the government and the planning
authority. The government neither
provided the housing and building
construction loans nor facilities for
loans. Only in later days the government
realized that loans for building
construction was necessary. Now, the
banks and finance companies and even
employees’ provident fund have
managed to facilitate this type of loan to
the construction companies and the
public.
If we look at the previous discussion, we
find that Nepal suffices from the
multiplicity of urban development
agencies including the agencies for
infrastructures and social services.
However, their coordination is mission.
In recent days, the government has
undertaken a participatory planning
approach to develop the urban land in a
planned way. The reason was that the
13
government, in the present context,
cannot afford to buy the land in
Kathmandu, where land prices have
multiplied and still soaring. So, the
participatory planning could be the best
alternative. In the beginning, the
government opted to use Site and
Service method to regulate the
unplanned growth of the valley, but later
the government was criticized of doing a
kind of business like job in such a
method. Also, the government was
finding difficulties to purchase the
costly land of the cities so it opted to
follow the Guided Land Development
(GLD) method in urban planning and
physical development of the Kathmandu
Valley. However, the recent method
adopted is land pooling, where the
community itself participates in
decision-making to plan implementation
of urban planning. At first, the majority
of the people opposed this method of
planning, but when they understood the
benefits of the planned and serviced
land value people themselves become
the messengers of such planning. That is
why the government has already
completed 10 land pooling projects, two
are in the verge of completion and 10
more projects are running in the valley.
With the success of the land pooling and
people’s participation therein, the
government is in a mood to have more
similar projects in the future.
The method is not free from conflicts.
People still have many grudges against
the procedures of such planning and in
the method of re-distribution of land.
However, many such complaints and
conflicts are settled in the project office
itself. Those cases which go up to the
project management committee and
14
  Policy and Practice of Urban Planning in Nepal: A Case of Public Community Participation

even to the courts have been resolved Summary and Conclusion

duly.
However, the planning authorities have
missed some of their mandated jobs. For
example, in the duties of the KVTDC, it
is clearly written that the authority will
be working to protect, among others, the
farmland but most of the plans are taken
in the most fertile rice fields. Even this
symptom has been passed on to the
Tarai plains of Nepal, which is known
as the granary of the country.
Though planning exercise was initiated
in Nepal during the 1960s with the
support of the UN, and there were many
planning exercises but unplanned
growth of the Kathmandu Valley
continued unabated. However, these
days the government, among other
things, has adopted a participatory
planning method to regularize the
development of the urban areas, which
is becoming quite popular, though it is
not free from conflicts and resentments.

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