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Government Ready to Hire Consultant for Smart City Plan

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Kathmandu, 12 January, 2018: The government is set to hire a consultant next week for preparing a detailed report (DPR) of a modern satellite city armed with all basic facilities. The modern satellite is planned to be built in the outskirts of Kathmandu valley.

Bhaikaji Tiwari, Deputy Development Commissioner at the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority (KVDA), said that the selection process of the company to hand over the DPR contract is in process. The KVDA has allotted Rs 160 million for the DPR of the first phase of the program. The first phase is excepted to be completed in five years.

The authority has already designated 10,000 ropanis of land from Gundu to Balkot and Changu Narayan areas in Bhaktapur for developing ‘Smart City’. Another 10,000 ropanis of land in Lalitpur and Kathmandu that includes: Saibu, Bhaisepati to Khokana, Bungamati and a few areas in Shampi. They all have been fixed to become a ‘modern city’.

Tiwari mentioned, “We are in the final phase of handing over the contract to carry out the DPR. We have already short-listed a company among eight applicants.” The KVDA had welcomed companies through a global tender and a winner will be selected on the basis of technical and financial proposal.

The winner of the bid has to file the pilot DPR within 15 months of completing a successful meeting with stakeholders, including land owners, government officials, municipalities and local bodies in the area. The government is also in the process of developing a new town in 100,000 ropanis of land in the northern part of Bhaktapur and southern part of the main road that leads to Sankhu.

The government has come up with the idea of smart cities in order to manage the haphazard settlement in the core area of the capital city by alluring the residents to move into a location on the outskirts with better facilities. For this process, the government adopts a land-pooling mechanism. In this process, 5 percent of total land will be utilized to construction of public infrastructure including road, hospital, drainage and open spaces.

Satellite cities are smaller cities in the suburbs located near major cities or metropolitan areas with all kinds of facilities that a metropolis enjoys such as drinking water, transportation, education, drainage system, hospital, separate commercial centres, agricultural farm and free internet service.

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