| Author | Joshi, Iswar Lal |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.HS-99-03 |
| Subject(s) | Land use, Urban--Nepal--Kathmandu
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | The Nepalese government adopted the Guided Land Development (GLD) concept in
1988 as a means of creating networks of public roadways in urban fringe areas at no cost to
government for town expansion. It was adopted for the Kathmandu Valley and other towns
with a Town Development Committee (TDC). The concept is that the TDC can form a unit to
plan networks of local roads that are located along the edge of the rural land parcels with each
landowner donating a 2 to 3m strip of their land for the roadway. These land donations are
more than compensated for by the increase in the market value of the remaining land parcel
that has gained a public roadway frontage.
In Lalitpur, the TDC designed some 125 km of GLD roads but only 27 km of these
have been opened by early 1999, mainly due to the need to pay money compensation to the
landowners that provide land but receive no benefit from the new roadway. There is also the
need for funds to construct the roads at least to the minimum standard of an all-weather gravel
road with drains. As the TDC has no funds for these expenditures other sources of funding
have to be found. The study investigates the potential of the betterment levy technique (BL) to
finance the opening and construction of GLD roads from the land and funds contributed by the
landowners fronting the road. The main concept of the betterment levy technique is to recover
the capital cost of the project from the landowners by recouping part of their land value
increments from them.
To test the practical application of the technique in Nepalese context, seven BL
schemes were prepared for seven separate road opening and/or improvement projects for
submission to the benefiting landowners so as to ascertain their acceptability to the
landowners as the beneficiaries of the schemes. All the schemes benefited the landowners
mainly by the net increase in their land values and by giving them road access for their land
and/or improving the road. The three schemes which were prepared to open the GLD roads
showed that the market value of the land goes up well above the scheme costs by opening the
road. The support from the majority of landowners for these schemes was due to the large net
land value increment and user benefits that the opening the GLD roads would give them, plus
the fair sharing of the costs and benefits, plus the affordable cost of the scheme. Hence, it can
be concluded that that the betterment levy technique would be an appropriate tool for the
implementation of GLD roads in Nepal.
However, the net increase in land value would not be sufficient in itself to implement
the schemes successfully as some landowners may not support the schemes, and legislative
backing for the technique is essential. In this regard, recommendations are given for
amendments to the existing Town Development Act, 1988-1997, on the cost sharing basis, up-front payments and other implementation mechanisms. |
| Year | 1999 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Human Settlement (HS) |
| Chairperson(s) | Archer, Ray W.; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Kammeier, H. Detlef ;Morishita, Hideharu; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | DAAD ; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999 |