Kathmandu, December 19
An agreement has been signed between Kathmandu Metropolitan City and China Railway’s 25th Bureau Group Company for preparing the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of a monorail line to be built along the 27.5 kilometer-long Ring Road in Kathmandu.
Mayor Bidya Sundar Shakya, on the behalf of KMC, and Zheu Wing, chief of the Overseas Business Management Department of China Railway’s 25th Bureau Group Co, signed the agreement.
Shakya asserted that the monorail, which is the common agenda of all political parties in the country, would not cause any financial burden to the State.
Shakya shared that an agreement had reached between the federal and provincial governments regarding the monorail construction. He was confident that the operation of monorail would aid in addressing the issues relating to air pollution in Kathmandu.
The Mayor also assured that not a single house would be dismantled while building the monorail.
The feasibility study of monorail in Kathmandu was first conducted in 2012.
According to KMC, works relating to monorail were stuck due to lack of experts and funds. KMC is now preparing to ask contractors to bid for the project.
Similarly, Zheu expressed his happiness and assured everyone that the DPR would be prepared on time.
According to KMC, the DPR will contain environment impact assessment, monorail’s design, its technical capacity, estimated cost, monitoring of the traffic management, phases of project implementation and profit analysis among others.
Lalitpur Metropolitan City mayor Chiri Babu Maharjan said that the monorail had become a political agenda during the time of elections, and it was now important that it is built.
The estimated cost of the monorail project is Rs 116 billion.
