Lalitpur Sub-metropolitan City (LSMC) is set to introduce Municipality Transportation Master Plan (MTMP)—a visionary infrastructural approach prioritising road network development, traffic management and construction of proper sewage, among other basic infrastructure, in the city. 

The LSMC has decided to formulate a local development plan according to the need-based, bottom-up and participatory approach by utilising rights granted to local authorities under the Local Self Governance Act. 

“MTMP plan is being prepared to finalise a vision of city development and to address the concerns like transportation-traffic mismanagement, infrastructure development and capacity enhancement,” said Bharat Mani Pandey, chief and executive director of the LSMC. “The plan is to improve our annual performance rating by introducing fundamental plans required to provide people with an improved access to various services, opportunities and resources.”

The MTMP is an important criterion in evaluating Minimum Conditions Performance Measure (MCPM), a rating used by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development to measure performance of local bodies on the basis of certain set standards and to tie up block grants and revenue sharing with performance rating.  Rule 273 (d) of Local Self-Governance Regulation states that the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development can evaluate the local bodies on the basis of indicators of minimum conditions and performance measures and thereby award them the funds on the recommendation of Local Bodies Fiscal Commission.

The LSMC had recently introduced a policy regarding development and implementation of the MTMP under the heading Physical Infrastructure Development at the 23rd Municipal Council meeting on January 10, 2016.

Senior engineer at the LSMC’s Project Administration Department Shree Kumar Maharjan said that a team of professionals was assessing the basic guidelines and major plans to be incorporated with the visionary document and would soon forward a concrete master plan for implementation. 

In addition, the LSMC has also decided to run 27 different road upgrading and black-topping projects with an estimated cost of Rs25 million and seven road expansion projects in the fiscal year 73/74 respectively.    

However, the implementation of the plan and policy may pose as a big challenge to the LSMC. Data suggests the total length of roads in the Valley is 4.8 million feet whereas the length of vehicles is 7.2 million feet. The government has extended only 300 kilometres of road in the Valley since 1995, while the number of vehicles has increased to 828,000 from 78,000.