The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has an ambitious plan up its sleeve—converting the dust collected from the city roads by broomer machines into bricks.

Hari Kumar Shrestha, chief at the Environment Division at the metropolis, said that the metropolis is in consultation with a Japanese team, among other agencies, to look into the possibility and the feasibility of the plan.    

“We are in the initial phase of our consultations to find ways to materialise this plan. This, in our view, is the best way to convert the collected road dust into something useful,” said Shrestha. According to him, if everything goes as planned, the metropolis will be using the new technology by the next fiscal year.

Kishor Thapa, an urban planner and former government secretary, said that the plan is achievable. “The bricks can be made by compressing the collected dust, just like how bricks are made with mud.”

He, however, dropped a caveat as to whether the metropolis has the expertise and technology.

“Developed countries such as Japan may already have the expertise and technology,” he said. “The metropolis should also consider whether this kind of technology is feasible for a country like Nepal.”

As road dust is a major contributor to the Capital’s rising pollution, the Kathmandu Metropolitan

City, in a bid to clean up the roads, had acquired five broomers machines on March this year.

The broomers have since been operating from 8pm to 4am on different road sections, collecting around 17 tonnes of dust per day from the city.

However, the metropolis is yet to figure out a way to manage the collected road dust.

Ishor Man Dangol, spokesperson at the metropolis, said, “These days we have been using the collected road dust to fill pits on the roads, but if we succeed in converting the dust into bricks, it will be a revolutionary move.”

He, however, stopped short of saying which or what technology the metropolis had in mind to execute the plan.