Kathmandu, December 16
The government’s plan to mobilise a private company to manage the garbage of Kathmandu city has been pushed into limbo after the withdrawal of the Investment Board Nepal.
The board had signed an agreement with the company named Nep Waste Private Limited around two years ago, assigning it to manage the capital city’s waste. While the agreement still awaits to be executed thanks to the lack of coordination among concerned government agencies, the board recently withdrew from the contract citing it was not the board’s authority.
The board now claims that waste management falls under the concerned local government’s jurisdiction as per the new laws and the board should not have any role in it as a federal government unit. The board’s chief executive officer Maha Prasad Adhikari says it has already handed over all related documents to the Kathmandu Metropolitan City.
Now, the city government is studying the documents and discussing possible options, according to Hari Kumar Shrestha, the chief of the KMC Environment Management Department.
“After the board’s exit, we have to find some option,” Shrestha says, “But nothing is decided yet. We are holding discussions.”
