Hello,
We are working on a project to create a new masterplanned city in Nepal.

This project is in its very early stage with the goal of creating "Best City In Nepal".

We want to solicit your ideas and suggestions for this project.

Beside the obvious 'Town Planning' experts, we will require inputs
from many other experts in the fields of  environment, transportation,
proper land use, water resources, waste management, communications, building and construction, banking, finance and many others.

We invite you to visit our google groups page to view articles (there are just a couple at the moment), and become a member of the project.

http://groups.google.com/group/bestcityinnepal

Thank you
-Lomash Regmi

is this city going to have electricity 24 hrs a day? please make sure that this dream city is powered by alternate energy source. This does sound like an interesting project keep up the good work i will suggest some ideas after i check out your proposal.

Hi CyLegend thanks for your response.

It won't be possible to get 24hr electricity from the national grid as the whole country is going through the same energy shortage.

I think private sector will be making significant investments in hydro projects now, as the financial capability has also increased with the remittance we get from overseas. So we should see end of load shedding in the future. I'm not sure exactly when that would be tho...

Unfortunately, for Nepal, diesel is the only other alternative (in a scale to power cities and industries) that I see at the moment. Unless we use really really efficient diesel engine, I don't think it will be the right choice for Nepal, for environmental as well as financial reasons.

We could do feasibility study of wind power at various places, most noticeable is the mustang district. That could be a new project on its own.

Very admirable endeavor.  Keep up the good work.

This might be of interest to you,

http://www.hyperionpowergeneration.com/

F22, thanks for that pointer. I had always considered nuclear power too expensive and somewhat dangerous, but the link you provided seems to indicate a different possibility. That is good to know.

Will have to do more research on it, as I know zero about nuclear power.

It seems there are many players and lots of innovation in this field: http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf33.html

Nice plan and initiative however I cannot help wondering if its ideal to ask the people over the internet who mostly live abroad. Wouldnt be better if you take the streets in Nepal to do heavy research and develop that in order to find what is lacking in the current cities and what can be done to meet the demand.

Are we talking about a city or a housing project? 1/2 sq. km area doesn't sound like a city to me.

If we are still talking about a city outside of Kathmandu then you have my attention. Forget about nuclears or anything else, we have so much hydro power if utilized properly we can power the whole south east Asia.

all the things you described makes a city modern but does it make the best city in nepal? yes, regarding living conditions but how about social conditions. you can't have a city without a proper government because people are always dependent on others. but that doesn't mean we have to wait for the government, we can actually start by doing small things like waste management. cleanliness is key to success! think about it, how do you feel when you smell fresh air in the morning? yeah, thats what i mean. i think that you're looking at this city in a big scale, maybe that works if you're creating a new city from ground zero. but i'm assuming that you're trying to incorporate this things with the existing so you need to start looking at the social context in micro level if you want to create the best city in nepal. study human life from street to street, corners to corners, study everything! since people makes up the city, you need to focus more on them then the city itself. happy people = best city in nepal.

lexlimbu, I agree. For a very detailed level understanding of problems facing our cities we would need to do research on the street.

For a high level understanding of the problems we can tell very certainly that cities like kathmandu, biratnagar, birgunj, pokhara, etc have problems of unregulated development, insufficient roads and footpaths, lack of green spaces, different kinds of pollutions, problems of criminal activities, etc. etc. I think you will agree that we can come up with a long list of real problems without doing a detailed street-level research.

kiddo, You are absolutely right about the size of a city. Half sq km is hardly a city. The idea started as a private sector initiative... to create a detailed plan to develop a maximum area of land that the government currently allows a public company to own. And yes, we are talking about a place outside of Kathmandu valley. It could even be a remote place where a road hasn't reached yet... We haven't found a place yet. The plan is to buy the land and develop it.

Key idea is to make it possible for further development of the area, (outside the original half sqkm), to strictly follow the original plan and keep its good qualities intact, so that it keeps growing as a great city.

A self contained city would be the best way to go energy wise. A waste management system is something we should have a good grasp on early on, that and energy.

I was recently reading about the celluloid homes built in Haiti that survived the disaster, maybe celluloid project should be scrutinized more in order to find out if that is a cheaper (in the long run) and more appealing source for a city in Nepal.

On another note, in extremely remote areas instead of an Urban city, maybe we should think of a rural city (several houses spread out) at a fairly large distance.

i think you need to decide on the location before deciding on other needs. maybe this site provides enough wind for a windmill that can power a house? or enough sunlight throughout the year for a solar panel? just how can you benefit from the natural resources that this area provides? i think the solution to most of the issues a city faces will be in the site since its getting build from ground zero. also, if it's rural with no roads then what kind of construction material should be applied? maybe bricks and concrete isn't the right way to go due to it's embodied energy. i just think that the site is the most important aspect to think of before, while, and after designing.