Nepal
He was seen spending much time with his family and friends in October, celebrating Dashain, Tihar and Chhath festivals. The festival season is over. Now, all the indications are that Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah will resume office with renewed vigour.
His plans to improve the banks of the Tukucha river and implement other projects remain intact, according to his secretariat.
Sunil Lamsal, engineer and a member of the Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor's Secretariat, told NepalMinute.com that the mayor is determined to go ahead with his five-year plan to implement the Tukucha banks improvement project.
His comments came days after a committee formed by the Department of Archaeology (DoA) concluded that the nearly 500-metre tunnel through which the Tukucha water has been channelled is an archaeological heritage.
Tukucha, an archeological heritage
The DoA recommended that the tunnel be protected.
On September 18, the Patan High Court issued a stay on KMC's tunnel excavation. The order came in response to a petition filed on behalf of President Travels and Tours Private Limited, whose building stands above the tunnel that is more than 100 years old.
The Tukucha originates in northern parts of Kathmandu and is a tributary of the Bagmati river. The KMC has floated plans to clear its banks in the capital's old town area – from Hattisar to Putalisadak - and develop parks and walking trails there.
Kathmandu Mayor Shah has been declining requests for media interviews. But his secretariat member, Sunil Lamsal, has indicated that the court's order would not deter the metropolis. He said the current pause on the activities along the Tukucha banks should not be interpreted as a failure.
"It will be a mistake to call the Tukucha issue a failure," he said. "It is 100 per cent certain that the structures built along the Tukucha river will be demolished and cleared. It is just a matter of time."
At the end of the legal proceedings, KMC officials hope that the court's final verdict will resolve the compensation issue, which will clear the way for the Tukucha improvement project.
Defending KMC's move to drive earth movers over the ancient tunnel, Lamsal said, "We never planned to completely unearth the tunnel. It was done to just show that the rivulet is underneath and hidden."
An expert panel formed by the Department of Archaeology found that bricks from the tunnel have 'Shree 3 Bir' engraved on them - proof that the structure was built almost 130 years ago during the reign of Rana prime minister Bir Shumsher (1885-1901).
Any archaeological object of more than one hundred years is protected under the Ancient Monument Preservation Act 1956.
Lamsal said: "The tunnel being an archaeological monument is proof that it is in fact a public property and how can a building be built on top of the public property?"
What’s next
As the parliamentary election is on the horizon, the metropolis is facing bureaucratic hurdles, as "ministries are reluctant to make any new decisions", said Lamsal. "That's why we can't begin new projects before the [November 20] elections are over."
So the Tukucha project will not restart before December. Also affected are Mayor Balen Shah's plans to build a compost manure plant and waste segregation works, including recycling and reusing plastic waste.
In the lead-up to the mayoral election, Balen Shah floated a string of new projects to improve the plight of the city residents. From a promise of easing traffic jams and developing public toilets and parks, he even assured to build infrastructure such as smaller dams to harvest rainwater in the valley's rivers.
That, he claimed, would go a long way in recharging the valley's groundwater aquifers and contribute to ending the drinking water crisis. First and foremost, though, Lamsal said, his priority lies in clearing parking spaces, roadside encroachments, and improving rivers like the Tukucha.
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