The public land along the Teku-Bagmati confluence will be transformed into a park, the Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has announced.

Addressing the 174th week of Clean Bagmati Campaign on Saturday, Chief and Executive of KMC Rudra Singh Tamang said the park would cover around 20 ropanis of land. 

The park building is a part of government’s larger effort to bring greenery on the banks of Bagmati River—the High Powered Committee for Integrated Development of Bagmati Civilisaiton (HPCIDBC) has already established 30 parks along the 28-km section of river’s corridor.

During the clean-up drive on Saturday, volunteers removed 18 metric tonnes of solid waste from the Batmati river at Teku and surrounding areas. A KMC team under Tamang also carried out an inspection of slaughterhouses that have been dumping animal remains into the river.

Saturday’s mega clean-up drive saw the participation of more than 200 people, including members from HPCIDBC, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force, Nepal Army. They also conducted a door-to-door awareness programme in the Teku area, spreading messages not to throw filth in the river and get involved in preserving the rivers.

The KMC officials said that a treatment plant would be establishied in Bagmati soon and the construction of drainage system was also progressing well.

According to Secretary at the HPCIDBC Rajesh Prasad Singh, drainage system has been completed along 21km out of the total 28km along the Bagmati river—from Baghdwar to Chobhar. The government had allocated Rs47 millions for the construction of drainage system along the banks of Bagmati, Bisnumati and Dhobikhola rivers. Besides, the committee has also made a commitment to build 6-km long sewerage system along the Bishnumati and Dhobikhola rivers this year.   

Taking a cue from the Clean Bagmati Campaign, locals in other cities—Pokhara, Dang, Lahan, Birtamode, Gulmi and Panchthar—have also started similar programmes.