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Road Expansion and Urban Highways: Consequences Outweigh Benefits in Kathmandu HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies Volume 37 Number 1 Article 15 June 2017 Road Expansion and Urban Highways: Consequences Outweigh Benefits in Kathmandu Prashanta Khanal [email protected] Anobha Gurung University of Texas at Austin, Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering; ICIMOD, Atmospheric Initiative, [email protected] Priyankar Bahadur Chand Possible Health, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya Recommended Citation Khanal, Prashanta; Gurung, Anobha; and Chand, Priyankar Bahadur. 2017. Road Expansion and Urban Highways: Consequences Outweigh Benefits in Kathmandu. HIMALAYA 37(1). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol37/iss1/15 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This Perspectives is brought to you for free and open access by the DigitalCommons@Macalester College at DigitalCommons@Macalester College. It has been accepted for inclusion in HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Macalester College. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Road Expansion and Urban Highways: Consequences Outweigh Benefits in Kathmandu Prashanta Khanal Anobha Gurung Priyankar Bahadur Chand Rapid urbanization has transformed Kathmandu with road expansion, the government’s Valley, Nepal, one of the fastest growing inability to regulate land use has contributed metropolitan regions in South Asia. This to Kathmandu’s current urban sprawl. Road urbanization, in turn, is leading to considerable expansion done without proper planning has social, economic, and environmental stress. threatened traditional settlements, many The region has seen unplanned growth with heritage sites, and led to loss of public despite continued planning exercises. In 2011, spaces and temple courtyards to make space in response to the rapid urbanization then for increasing demand for parking. Another Prime Minster Baburam Bhattarai initiated major landscape change has been the building road expansion throughout the city to reduce of concrete embankments and exclusive traffic congestion. By mid 2015, it was clear that motor roads along the river corridors. The road the road expansion induced greater demand expansion campaign is still ongoing and is a top leading to further traffic congestion rather than priority of the government’s efforts to reduce alleviating the problem. Today, non-motorized congestion and improve urban transportation. (pedestrians and bicycle) road users are more It is high time the government of Nepal rethinks unsafe on the roads than ever before, and the its vehicle-centric urban transport policy and plight of public transport users has remained adopts policy where mobility of people is the same. Traffic congestion has become a prioritized. Urban transport planning should more serious problem. Air pollution associated work to build a more equitable and inclusive with road construction and an increasing city while addressing accessibility, safety, and number of vehicles has turned the Kathmandu environmental health risks of its growing urban Valley into a dust bowl with potential for population. serious human health consequences. Along Keywords: road expansion, traffic congestion, environment. HIMALAYA Volume 37, Number 1 | 107 Kathmandu’s Tale of Urbanization and Vehicle-Centric sion within and outside of the radial Ring Road took place Transport Planning without proper planning turning fertile agriculture lands to urban settlements lacking proper urban infrastructures Over half of the world’s population was living in urban such as drinking water, drainage system, service roads, areas in 2008 with an expected rise to almost five billion by public transport access, electricity, etc. The urban/built-up 2030 and with more than 90 percent of urban population areas grew from 2.9 percent of the total land in 1967 to 4.9 growth occurring in developing countries (Obaid 2007). percent in 1978, and most of the area within the Ring Road In particular, Asia is predicted to contain more than half was considered built-up by 1991 (Japan International Co- of the world’s cities with populations of 500,000 or more operation Agency and Ministry of Physical Planning 2012). (Seto et al. 2010). Urban living thus forms the foundation After the promulgation of Town Development Act in 1988, of modern human ecology, acting as a main force towards KVTDC introduced a land pooling scheme and Guided Land determining our social, economic, and environmental Development (GLD) program under which 475 kilometers characteristics (Seto et al. 2010). In South Asia, Nepal is one of roads were to be developed (International Centre for of the least urbanized countries but the fastest urbanizing Integrated Mountain Development 2007). Such a focus country with about a five percent annual average urban on expanding the kilometers of roads without integrated population growth rate (Muzzini and Aparicio 2013). urban and transport planning policies have contributed Today, rapid urbanization has transformed Kathmandu to haphazard urbanization and an unprecedented rate of Valley, Nepal, into one of the fastest-growing metropolitan motor vehicle use in Kathmandu. Increasing growth in regions in South Asia (Muzzini and Aparicio 2013). The the Valley can also be attributed to increase in household 2011 census showed that the urban areas in the income largely due to influx of remittance and increasing Kathmandu Valley have a population density of 14,355 population. people per square kilometer with a nearly four percent av- Starting in the late 1960s a Structural Plan of Kathmandu erage annual population growth rate in the past between Valley was created with help from the United Nations 2001-2011 (Central Bureau of Statistics 2012). This rapid Development Program and the World Bank, which aimed urbanization in the Kathmandu Valley is uncontrolled, at guiding the urban development of Kathmandu for the haphazard, and environmentally unsustainable. Accord- next 50 years. The first Physical Development Plan for ing to a World Bank report, if the urban expansion of the the Kathmandu Valley was in fact prepared in 1969. But Valley continues at the same pace, the Valley will face un- due to democratic changes in the 1990s, this policy was precedented stress on land resources and also significantly abandoned for Kathmandu Valley Urban Development increase vulnerability to disasters, including earthquakes Plans and Programmes in 1991 (His Majesty’s Government (Muzzini and Aparicio 2013). As aligned with Muzzini of Nepal 1991). This plan focused on urbanization in the and Aparicio 2013, many believe that the large death toll peripheral regions of the Ring Road, while also aiming for during the great earthquake in April 2015 can be attributed a holistic urban development that considered environmen- to haphazard urbanization. tal, infrastructural, financial, and managerial concerns. Kathmandu’s tale of modern urbanization can be traced to Stemming from this plan, a new Long Term Development the end of the Rana era in the 1950s. The construction of Concept for Kathmandu Valley was formulated in 2002 the Tribhuvan Highway linking Kathmandu to India in the with the aim of guiding the developing the Kathmandu 1950s and subsequent building of the Arniko Highway link- metropolitan area until 2020 (Kathmandu Valley Town ing the city to China in the 1960s promoted trade with Chi- Development Committee 2002). Even though this plan pro- na (Thapa, Murayama, and Ale 2008). Such developments moted conservation of agricultural land, a new outer Ring not only promoted trade, but also the movement of people Road, and regulation of environmentally sensitive areas, into the capital. Kathmandu’s transformation from rural such plans have not had a life outside of their documentary clusters into its current urban sprawl started in the 60’s as status in Kathmandu offices (Thapa and Murayama 2011). well. The Kathmandu Valley Town Development Imple- After the first physical development plan in 1969, many mentation Committee (KVTDC) was established in 1976 for such development plans for Kathmandu Valley were pre- the three districts of the Valley to oversee the city’s urban pared but never implemented due to institutional, legal, or planning and growth. In the 1970s the KVTDC oversaw the financial impediments (Department of Urban Development construction of the 27-kilometer Ring Road around metro- and Building Construction. 2016). politan areas of Kathmandu and Lalitpur with the financial In response to the rapid urbanization and increase in and technical assistance from Chinese government (His motorization in the Kathmandu Valley, in late 2011, the Majesty’s Government of Nepal 1969). Rapid urban expan- 108 | HIMALAYA Spring 2017 then Prime Minster Baburam Bhattarai directed Metropol- improvement has been seen with these efforts, based on itan Traffic Police Division and Kathmandu Valley Town our observation. The government is further upgrading Development Committee, later established as Kathmandu the existing two-lane Ring Road to eight lanes along a ten- Valley Development Authority (KVDA) in April 2012, to kilometer section of the Kalanki-Satodobato-Koteshwar initiate road expansion throughout the city in order to passage, including an underpass in Kalanki Chowk, with the reduce congestion by demolishing houses and structures.
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