KATHMANDU: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has pointed out the inevitability of developing systematic cities in a planned manner in step with the country’s topographical features.
Addressing the joint annual review meeting of the Ministry of Urban Development and the Ministry of Forests and Environment in Singha Durbar today, he said the development strategy should be to interconnect east and west and the north and south of the country.
The Prime Minister stressed on the need of building systematic model city within the Kathmandu Valley, referring to having brought forward the concept of ‘smart city’ during his second term as Prime Minister.
“Now, we should develop well-planned cities. We have called this as smart city. This long-term strategy should be implemented mulling it seriously,” he said.
Stating that some local governments are facing problem in service delivery for delay in the construction of their administrative buildings, PM Dahal stressed on constructing the administrative buildings of the local levels which are the governments closest to the people at the earliest.
He also stressed on taking ahead construction of systematic urbanization and the urban beautification simultaneously.
“The construction of the Mid-hill Highway was started when I became the Prime Minister for first time. We had also forwarded the construction of the Hulaki (Postal) Highway. The north-south corridor is also our concept of development,” he said.
He further added, “The development model should be in tune with the country’s condition, the geographical features and the developing economic characteristics.”
Prime Minister Dahal underscored the need of making many policy and legal improvements in the forest and environment sectors, saying the Act of 2029 BS did not address the present situation.
He added that the narrative that forest and development are incompatible should be changed.
Talking about the reality of Nepal’s importing timber worth billions of rupees annually despite the country being rich in the forest resources, he said the situation of not being able to even use easily the timber from fallen trees in the forest should be put to an end.
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