Kathamandu: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has said its attention has been drawn towards the events/programs carried out by political parties and their sister organisations in some schools within the KMC.

The KMC directed such political parties and their sister organisations not to organise political activities in schools onwards as the KMC Education Department has received complaints with evidence that political parties and their sister organisations held programmes in schools against existing Education Act and Regulations.

KMC Education Officer Sitaram Koirala said the KMC would monitor the schools based on the complaints and it has made preparation to take departmental action to principal of such schools if political activities were found carried out there.

Similarly, ‘Book Free Friday’ programme is going to be launched in all community schools from this academic session. The KMC has asked all the community schools to mandatorily run the programme.

As per the programme, students will go to school on regular time on every Friday without carrying bags and return home after participating in extracurricular activities and practical knowledge, added Koirala.

The KMC has already distributed Rs 100,000 budget to every secondary school for the same and preparation has been made to increase the budget up to Rs 200,000 next year.

Likewise, the KMC has set a plan to expand the programme at private schools from next year. There are 89 community schools and 540 private schools within KMC. RSS

KATHMANDU, July 26: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has begun producing compost by making use of biodegradable waste generated from houses.

KMC’s efforts aim to make use of biodegradable garbage generated from the city, which also helps waste management of the Kathmandu Valley, said KMC’s spokesperson Ishworman Dangol.

Waste collected is categorized and only biodegradable garbage is extracted for use, he said.

“A large amount of biodegradable waste is produced from houses. We are focusing on managing such garbage in the local level,” he said.

The KMC is testing the compost production from Dallu area, and it will be expanded in the coming days, he said.

Over 50 houses in the area are collecting waste for this purpose.

The KMC has separate vehicles to carry biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.

“Utilizing biodegradable garbage at the local level will decrease the total amount of waste collected from the KMC for management,” said Dangol.

Out of its total 32 wards, KMC is picking garbage from eight, and the private sector is employed to manage waste from the remaining 24. Some private organizations are also helping in this regard, said Hari Kumar Shrestha, KMC, Environment Department Chief.

Over 350 metric tons of waste is generated from the KMC on a daily basis. RSS

KATHMANDU, July 17: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is registering private companies and organizations for the collection of solid waste.

KMC is planning to proceed for registering private companies to address the issue of deficit coordination among the collectors and raise revenue systematically.

Currently private companies are managing 80-100 tippers of wastes in Kathmandu every day. The companies are paying Rs 350 per trip to the metropolitan city office.

Hari Kumar Shrestha, chief iof KMC Department of Environment, said, “We come up with this move to bring uniformity in the delivery of services and collection of costs from households”.

KMC has been collecting wastes in eight out of its 32 wards while private companies are doing the same job in remaining 24 wards.

“Some companies have started categorizing wastes. We will collaborate with private companies to categorize wastes as it is indispensable for long-term management and solution”, he added.

KMC has been collecting and managing 350 metric tons of wastes every day. It has 21 tippers to collect and manage wastes. RSS

KATHMANDU, May 23: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is to operate electric vehicles in its bid to reduce air pollution in the city.

KMC mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya said this in his address to a seminar on ‘Impact of Garbage in Climate Change’, organized by KMC on Wednesday.

He said discussions were on with the bodies concerned regarding operating electric vehicles as doing so would drastically reduce vehicular emission thereby bringing some improvement in the environment.

Mayor Shakya stressed on collective efforts from all sectors in the sustainable management of household waste in the Kathmandu valley for stopping the impact of such waste in climate change.

Deputy Mayor Hariprabha Khadgi (Shrestha) emphasized on bringing change in individual thinking and behavior for the sustainable management of waste.

On the occasion, environmentalist Bhusan Tuladhar presented a paper on the impact of city waste on climate change. The paper has made several recommendations to that end. RSS

KATHMANDU, May 22: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has carried out monitoring of petrol pumps in collaboration with the partner agencies.

KMC stated that petrol pumps mainly in Balaju, Kalanki, Kalimati, among other places were monitored over 15 days.

KMC Urban Good Governance Department chief Hari Kunwar said the monitoring was conducted to find out the reality as most of the petrol pumps currently in operation are found very close to human settlements and road.

A five-member study task force was formed under Kunwar’s convenorship for the study.

A representative each from KMC, Traffic Police Office, Nepal Oil Corporation and the Department of Urban Development are the members on the team.

The process for removing the ‘unsafe’ petrol pumps would be started once the status of the petrol pumps would be available on the basis of the monitoring report to be submitted by the task force.

According to Kunwar, it would not be difficult to close down the petrol pumps that started operating after 2054 BS.

Those pumps that are feasible for shifting to another place would be transferred and in the case of the non-feasible ones, the bodies concerned would be urged to manage them.

KMC has started the study after public complaints that risk of disaster has increased due to the operation of petrol pumps close to the settlements. There are altogether 75 petrol pumps in KMC. RSS

KATHMANDU, March 26: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has started operation of five road broomer machines in a bid to get rid of dusty roads of the city.

Kathmandu mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya inaugurated the broomer machines amid a function organized at Rastriya Shabha Griha in the capital on Tuesday.

Kathmandu City has seen dusty roads due to undergoing road widening projects and Melamchi pipeline laying works. According to Kathmandu Post, the Metropolitan City deploys more than 750 sweepers to clean the roads in various parts of the city.

The Italian imported, Euro IV Emission Standard DULEVO 6000 broomer can store 500 liter water and 4.68 m3 dust. It can clean the area of 25000m2 per hour.

The KMC has spent 762470 euro (NRS 95,043,767) to procure each machine.

Inaugurating the city clean-up drive, Mayo Shakya shared that the broomers will operate in five routes.

See the Routes:

KATHMANDU, March 5: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has identified 69 places for constructing public toilets.

The public toilets will be constructed at places which are often crowded with dense presence of people, according to Dhurba Kafle, chief of KMC Public-Private Partnership Unit.

A task force formed on January 20 for construction of public toilets identified the locations. The places identified so far for this purpose are in front of the Nepal Art Council at Babarmahal, Thapathali bus stop, in front of Baneshwar temple, towards the east of Koteshwar Chowk, in front of the National Trading Limited at Teku, near theKalanki Metro Hall, Balaju, Baisdhara, Sitapaila bus stop and Machhapokhari.

Similarly, public toilet would be constructed at Gaushala, Teenkune, Tripureshwar, Sundhara, NAC, near the Juddha Statue, Hanumandhoka, Jamal, Lainchaur, Sohrakhutte, Balkhu and Kuleshwar in the first phase.

Fifty-eight public toilets are currently in operation in Kathmandu. Out of these toilets, 28 are usable while the rest are unusable and need to be repaired.

Many of the existing public toilets lack facilities like water, soap, light and sanitary pads, Kafle said.

Although KMC had set the objective of constructing smart toilet at 41 various places within the city since two years back, works to that connection have not been started yet.

KMC mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya, last April, directed all the KMC wards to identify places for constructing smart toilets.

KATHMANDU, MAY 15: Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is preparing to buy five broomer machines soon to clean dusty city roads of Kathmandu.

A tender was called on April 5, and seven companies had applied for the contract. A bidding evaluation subcommittee has been formed under the chairmanship of Rabin Man Shrestha, Chief of the environment section at the KMC to select the applicants. It costs Rs 120 million to purchase five the road sweepers.

A campaign is underway under the ‘Clean the City’ to clean the roads in the areas including Bag Durbar, Lainchaur, Ratnapark, Jamal, Old Bus Park, Putalisadak, Tri Chandra College and Bhadrakali. RSS

KATHMANDU, April 27: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has taken action against 91 individuals for haphazardly disposing their waste products.

The individuals were subjected to legal action for not disposing waste at the designated areas or handing the waste to the garbage truck.

KMC Town Police Inspector, Min Bahadur Thapa, said the metropolitan city was particularly taking action against those disposing the waste in Putali Sadak, Bag Bazaar, New Road and Jamal areas during the nighttime.

They will be subjected to a minimum fine of Rs 500 and up to Rs 100,000 at the maximum. There are more than hundred individuals who are facing the city’s legal crackdown. The KMC has been managing 800 metric tons of garbage collected from the Kathmandu valley on a daily basis.

Likewise, KMC has managed 1600 tons of dust within mid April of the ongoing fiscal year. The dust management comes in wake of the Clean the City Campaign. The collected dust was disposed along the bank of the Bishnumati river.

The KMC also cleared 55 truck-loads of wire dangling dangerously along the streets of the capital. The KMC started management of the disorder and chaos emanating from dangling wires last November. RSS

KATHMANDU, April 25: The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) is to construct smart parking in order to systematize the traffic system in the valley.

Such parking lot would be constructed in New Road in the first phase. Chief of KMC Public Private Partnership Chief Mahesh Kafle said that the smart parking lots would be created in other parts of the valley based on the effectiveness of first smart parking.

According to Kafle, the smart parking would be state of the art and the vehicle owners can ensure their parking areas prior to reaching their parking areas.

However, only registered vehicles could be parked in the smart parking site since the censor examines the vehicles regarding their registration. Kafle added that only the registered vehicles would get chance for parking. RSS