KATHMANDU: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has reclaimed more than 208 ropani of public land that had been encroached upon, Mayor Balen Shah has announced.
In a post on social media, Mayor Shah said the recovered land, valued at Rs 23 billion, is part of the city’s ongoing campaign to reclaim illegally occupied public property.
According to him, the metropolitan city has set a target to recover a total of 1,859 ropani and 14 ana of encroached land — worth nearly Rs 200 billion — since he assumed office.
The campaign is being implemented under the authority granted by the Local Government Operation Act, 2074, which empowers local governments to protect, manage, and recover public land and property.
Shah said the initiative aims to curb the long-standing practice of encroaching, occupying, and grabbing public land.
The KMC has also begun transforming the reclaimed land into open parks, sports grounds, skateboard parks, pavilions, and green spaces to prevent future encroachment.
To institutionalize the effort, the metropolis has formed an implementation committee to oversee the return of all encroached land to public use. The committee will act on the recommendations of a report prepared by a commission led by former secretary Ram Bahadur Rawal, and will start its work immediately.
KMC officials say the protection and proper utilization of public land will now be one of the metropolis’s top priorities.
Comment