Background

Nepal has recently begun to “modernize” and “urbanize”, and as such is now suffering from traffic jams, and air and noise pollution. Moreover, the rate of heart problems has reached an alarming state. Pedestrians’ rights have become a public issue of global concern. Considering these issues, RECPHEC has, through the Roads for People programme, attempted to promote the car free city concept and encourage the use of bicycles as a primary means of local transportation in Nepal.

Thamel is the main tourist center of Kathmandu. A large amount of tourism‐related investment has been poured in this area, evidenced by the numerous shops, hotels, restaurants, communication centers, and Nepalese arts and crafts‐promoting cottage industries. Thamel provides a significant amount of employment for city dwellers. Therefore, in order to maintain the attractiveness of Thamel, it is wise to think in advance about how to address the deteriorating condition of this economically vibrant site.

Vehicular movement in Thamel is one source of the deteriorating environmental condition and negative psychological impacts on visitors. Air pollution, unsafe and uncomfortable walking, and regular traffic jams are the negative factors defaming the charming face of this tourist core of Kathmandu. To address these issues, RECPHEC, in association with Thamel Tourism Development Board and Traffic Police, has initiated a number of activities.

Activity Summary

Workshop

RECPHEC and the Thamel Tourism Development Board jointly organized a one‐day workshop on ʺVehicle Regulated Zones in Thamel” on 4th August 2005 in Kathmandu. A total of 50 participants representing different hotels and restaurants, and including local people, media persons, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, clubs and government representatives participated in this consultation meeting. The workshop unanimously agreed to regulate the motorized vehicle in the Thamel area. (Detailed report on this has already been submitted)

Planning Meeting

The Thamel Tourism Board, Municipality, Traffic Police, and RECPHEC jointly organized a planning meeting for 2006. The main activities planned for the first six months of the project were as follows: 3

Conduct house hold opinion survey

Publish posters and pamphlets to raise peopleʹs awareness

Initiate vehicle regulated zone in association with the Traffic Police

Identify parking spaces

Hold a bicycle rally

Design other activities

Publications

A pamphlet about ʺOperating a Vehicle Regulated Zone Systemʺ was produced to raise awareness among the local residents, shopkeepers, and hotels workers in the Thamel Area. This pamphlet was disseminated throughout the Thamel Area. RECPHEC also published a poster on “Controlling the use of vehicles run on petroleum products” in Nepali.

Meeting with the Vehicle Regulated Zone Sub Committee

The Tourism Development Board of Thamel, organized a meeting on 13th June at Hotel Marsyandi. Representatives from 50 different agencies, including the District Administration Office, Traffic Police, Hotel Association of Thamel, local residential, Clubs, Taxi Association and other NGOs and journalists, participated in this meeting. Those attending the meeting decided not to give permission to private vehicles including motorcycle to park inside restricted areas.

The main highlights of the discussion were:

Immediate action for instituting a vehicle regulation zone

Management of parking places

Management of proper sign‐boards

Management of water falling from the roofs

Street repairs

At this meeting, Mr. Pandey briefed the participants about the ongoing activities of the vehicle regulation zone. Mr. Shyam Gyawali, Police Inspector, expressed his appreciation for these activities and gave his commitment to support the programme.

Mr. Shanta Lall Mulmi, Executive Director of RECPHEC, shared his views regarding the vehicle regulation zone and his willingness to work with the Thamel Tourism Development Board to make a success. He also expressed the possibility of expanding activities in different Nepali cities i.e. sub metropolitan cities Pokhara and Birgunj. 4

Mr. Gobinda Acharya, Assistant Secretary, Kathmandu Metropolitan, suggested that the Thamel Tourism Development Board work together with local people for the development of the Thamel area. He also expressed his willingness to provide support to Kathmandu Metropolitan for the promotion of Thamelʹs development.

The meeting was concluded with following actions to be undertaken within the week:

Parking prohibition on the streets

Strongly apply one way system

Empty taxis must exit or park in allocated place as soon as they drop off their passengers

Entry time must be allocated for local people

Meeting with the Taxi Association

Representatives from the Taxi Association, Thamel Tourism Development Board, and RECPHEC met on 2nd January 2006 at the Thamel Tourism Development Board office. They decided to regulate taxis entering the Thamel area from 3rd January. Regulatory monitoring will be handed over to the traffic police. The Taxi Association will take responsibility for taxi parking in Tridevi Marg. The Taxi Association will also manage a queue system at hotels.

RECPHEC and Tourism Development Board Meeting

Mr. Shanta Lall Mulmi Executive Director of RECPHEC met with Mr. Ganesh Bahadur Pandey, President and representatives of Tourism Development Board Thamel on 23rd January 2006 in RECPHECʹs office at Bagbazar, Kathmandu. They discussed the roles of RECPHEC and TTDB related to the conduct of a household survey to gather opinions of the people living in the Thamel area. They also discussed financial support, data collection, management and report writing responsibilities. The meeting concluded with the following decisions:

TTDB will take responsibility for questionnaire photocopies, supervision of enumerators, and data enumeration in Thamel.

Orientation of the enumerators will be done jointly by TTDB and RECPHEC in RECPHECʹs office

Financial support will be provided by RECPHEC

Information management and report writing task will be completed by REPHEC

Poster Campaign

A Poster Campaign was organized in the Thamel area between 6th and 15th 5

February 2006 to raise the awareness of the local people about the need for vehicle regulation. During the campaign, 475 posters were distributed and posted in different places around the Thamel Area, including on street walls, public places, houses, and other places

House Hold Survey

A cross‐sectional descriptive study involving qualitative and quantitative analysis was conducted in the Thamel area. The study included a situational analysis of people’s knowledge about the Thamel environment, collected through personal interviews and focus group discussion. The aim of the study was to analyse people’s perceptions of the vehicle‐regulated zone in Thamel and their perceptions of the causes of environmental degradation in the area.

Information was collected from a total of 300 personal interviews and one focus group discussion. However only 299 respondents were included in the data analysis as one respondent was not able to complete the questionnaire. Data collection was conducted between 6th and 25th February 2006.

Of the 299 validated interviewed respondents, 240 were male and 59 were female. Among them, most of the respondents were between 25‐ 59 years of age. Most of the respondents were Brahmin and Chhetri. More than 80% of the respondents belonged to Hindu religion and the majority (62%) spoke Nepali as their mother tongue. Nearly 97% of the total respondents were literate, which signifies that the majority of the people living in the Thamel Area are literate. Almost 80% respondents were engaged in business, including Cargo (34%), Curio shop (16.4%), Lodge (12.6%) and Restaurant (11.3%).

The majority (96%) of the respondents were aware about the environment of this area. More than 80% people were also aware of and concerned about different types of environmental pollution.

Almost 84% respondents agreed to the plan to regulate vehicles in Thamel. However, 16% respondent preferred to control vehicles instead of regulating them. The respondents acknowledged heavy traffic, street trades, unnecessary trouble to tourists, dirty streets, and an unsystematic tourist information system as the major causes of decreasing numbers of tourists. Likewise, 84.6% of the respondents believed that tourists tended to feel uncomfortable during their stay in Thamel due to the deteriorating environment. They also noted the inconveniences of not being able to walk freely in the streets, of not being familiar with the area, of being harassed by brokers, street children and peddlers, and of the dangers of being out late at night.

On question of the feasibility of a vehicle regulated zone, 20% of the respondents 6

believed that tourists would face problems with transportation, while 80% believed that the implementation of a vehicle regulated zone would not pose any problems to the tourists.

The majority of the respondents (90%) said that residents of Thamel would have more advantages than disadvantages through the regulation of vehicles, as it would result in promotion of their business through a better environment. Likewise, 94% respondents said that tourists tended to shorten their stay in this area due to the environment and hence believed that initiation of such action would help to lengthen their stay. The respondents identified trolleys, porters, cart service and rickshaw service as the best alternatives to motor vehicles.

While 40% of the respondents appreciated the concept of the program, one‐third offered their support in the initiation and implementation of the program.

Around 35% of the respondents engaged in business said that vehicle regulation would lead to convenience in walking. While 34.45% of the respondents said that it would result in easy adjustment to the area, 26% said that people would feel safer to stay out till late night and 68.26% said that people would have better accessibility to shopping centers. However, some respondents also pointed out potential problems with transportation, decline in business, and the number of tourists.

Among the respondents, nearly 50% have their own vehicle. Most of the respondents have motorbikes (50.7%). Only few respondents owned a car and other four‐wheelers. They all agreed to the regulation of vehicles and even suggested the promotion of smokeless vehicles.

Conclusion

Thamelʹs environment is deemed to be polluted from a number of factors. More than 96% of the people of Thamel are gravely concerned about these issues. Among the factors of environmental pollution identified, motor vehicles emerged as having the most harmful impact. People, both tourists and locals, are not able to freely walk in the street due to the increasing number of vehicles. Street children, brokers, massage centers; narrow streets and growing criminal activities also are setbacks in this area. Many tourists have shortened their stay and shifted to other residential places due to the pollution and growing anti‐social activities in this area. To intercept this gradual environmental deterioration, the respondents emphasized the need to either control or regulate vehicles in this area along with introducing appropriate action plans to prohibit the above‐mentioned detrimental factors. Most of the Thamel residents are willing to work together in these issues if someone is ready to initiate the action program. Hotel owners, most of the vehicle 7

owners, and businesspersons agreed to the regulation of vehicles in this locale.

Recommendations

Based on the result of the study, the following recommendations will be helpful for preparation of action plan and its implementation.

The drastic increase in the number of vehicles in the streets has posed a challenge to the transportation management authorities. So, vehicles should be regulated in an appropriate manner. Therefore, certain time periods should be allowed for entry and exit of vehicles in this area and a pass system can also be introduced to regulate the vehicles.

People have been facing difficulty while walking in the street because of the number of vehicles. Therefore, vehicle regulation is vital to create safer walking conditions.

Parking is another issue in this area. People with motor vehicles face this difficulty due to the narrow streets and excess number of vehicles. To overcome this problem, alternative‐parking areas should be identified.

The environment in Thamel is deteriorating day by day. Even the tourists have been found to shorten their stay in this area due to this reason. Motor vehicles have been identified as the major cause of environmental pollution in this area. So, it is necessary to regulate motor vehicles. Therefore everyone should pressure the concerned authorities to introduce and implement effective actions for vehicle regulation.

Tourism Development Board Regular Meeting

The Tourism Development Board organized a meeting on 13th June 2006 in Hotel Marsyandi. 50 representatives from different agencies i.e. District Administration Office, Traffic Police Head Office, Traffic Office Durbamarg, Tourist Police Thamel, Police Post Sorakhutte, Hotel Association of Thamel, Thamel residential people, Clubs, Taxi association and other NGOs and journalist participated in this meeting. The main agenda of meeting was to describe the meaning of vehicle regulation. The participants at the meeting agreed that:

Private vehicles, including motorcycles, would not be permitted to stop and park inside the restricted areas.

The district administrative office and traffic police would provide security personnel to patrol the areas.

The Taxi Association would inform the taxi drivers that they could not stop empty taxis inside Thamel areas.

Bicycle Rally

RECPHEC and Thamel Tourism Development Board jointly organised a bicycle rally on July 29th, 2006. The rally was inaugurated by a senior social worker, 86 years old (Mr. Rudra Lall Mulmi). Mr. Namgyal Lama, President of TTDB welcomed the participants and Mr. Shanta Lall Mulmi, Executive Director, RECPHEC introduced the rally.

More than 250 people, both national and international, participated in this rally. The participants represented different sectors i.e. local people, municipality, traffic police, tourist police, business holder, clubs, civil society, health workers, media and students. The rally started at 7:30 am from Tridevi Marg, Thamel and was completed at 8:15. RECPHEC provided t‐shirt, caps, certificates to the participants. Thousands of people were made aware about value of bicycle riding as well as deteriorating environment condition of the cities.

Electronic media (Kantipur television, Nepal 1, Image channel and Kantipur FM) covered the news about the rally.

House Hold Survey Report Dissemination

The research ‐ survey is one of the vital keys to measure of the socio‐ economic status of societies as well as other sectors. The survey reports provide guidelines to build up the effective policy programs. Therefore, research/ surveys should be conducted before formulation and implementation of the policy program in every discipline.

The survey report was disseminated on 13th August 2006 by the Nepal Tourism Development Board. More than 70 participants representing different agencies, including the Traffic Police, Tourism Police, Traffic Office Durbar Marg, Police Office Sorakhutte, Local Clubs, Kathmandu Metropolitan, Civil Society, Political Activist, Local People, Media, Nepal Tourism Development Board, Ministry Of Tourism And Environment, Taxi Association, Rickshaw Association, Hotel Association, Cargo Association, Nepal Comers And Trade Union, Nepal Industries Federation, Health Professional, Environment Specialist, Thamel Tourism Development Board And Business Holder participated in this program.

The forum decided to formulate the Action Committee and formed the Task Force Committee. The following organizations are members of the Task Force Committee:

Thamel Tourism Development Board (TTDB)

Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) 9

Traffic Police Office Head Quarter

Traffic Police Post Darwarmarg

Ward Police Durbarmarg

Tourist Police Office

Ward Police Office Lainchour,

Local Clubs (Chibahal Pariwar Club and Jyatha Sub Committee)

Taxi Association

RECPHEC

NTB

Civil Society

The newly formed committee started its program the following day. From 14th to 16th August 2006, the committee sent notices and information about the vehicle regulation program in Thamel area to the all business owners, advising them to not park their vehicles on the road and to remove all boards and banners from the footpaths.

Altogether, 40 motorbikes are removed by Traffic police on 17th August 2006, as they were parked in the Thamel areas. The motorcycle owners paid Rs.1000 to the traffic office to release their motorcycle. The banners, posters and the hoarding boards also were removed out by the Kathmandu Metropolitan. These actions are now ongoing.

Outcomes

Taxis enter Thamel by queue system

Empty taxis cannot enter or stop inside Thamel (Taxi association takes action against the taxis that park inside Thamel)

Motorcycles do not park in front of business centers

Motorcycles are not permitted to drive with heavy sound‐ able silencer pipe

One‐way road system thoroughly maintained

Banner and hoarding board removed from walls

Traffic police, Tourist police and city police continuously on duty to regulate the vehicles.

Actions still in progress

Planning for the parking areas

Developing pass systems for vehicle owners

Information center is going to be established for tourists

Anti‐social activities that are taking place in Thamel area will be stopped 10

Task Force Committee Review Meetings

The Task Force Committee review meeting was conducted on 24th August 2006 in Hotel Tashi Darke. There were 18 participants from the 12 organizations. The committee discussed a number of issues, with the following decisions being made:

The information center will established by mid September

Action will be not taken on all issue areas (Massage center, street children, footpath shops) at the same time

The main focus of task force committee will be on vehicle regulation

Another meeting was held in Nursing Chowk on 30th August 2006 in Thamel. More than 40 people participated, including the Task Force Committee, local people, clubs and other concerning organizations. The meeting was held due to a request from Kathmandu Metropolitan and Traffic Police Office.

A follow up meeting was held 31st August 2006 in Thamel Tourism Development Board. There were 9 people from the Task Force Committee. The main objective of this meeting was to prepare the appeal for the peopleʹs participation in the vehicle regulation and to stop anti‐social activities in the Thamel area. The committee prepared the Appeal immediately and it was distributed to the local people.

Media Advocacy

RECPHEC has been able to mobilize the media for an advocacy campaign. The print media and electronic media including Television channel and F.M. stations played a very active role, including a press interview of Dhawalagiri FM with Shanta Lall Mulmi on 18th August and Kalika FM on 1st September. Nepal Television telecasted a 30 minute special programme on RECPHEC focusing on Tobacco and Carfree cities on 9th September at 7:30 PM.

Outcomes from June 2005 ‐ June 2006

Taxi parking is not permitted inside Thamel area

Empty taxis are prohibited to enter inside Thamel

Prohibition of heavy load vehicle (trucks, mini‐buses) except at allocated times

Taxis can enter inside Thamel queue systems only

Pamphlet and posters published and disseminated

Around 90 percent Thamel residential people were advantaged from the poster campaign

Household Survey conducted 11

House Hold survey is completed and 84% respondents agreed to the plan to regulate vehicles in Thamel

More organization/Go agencies join hands in this momentum.

‐ Thamel Tourism Board, Thamel

‐ Kathmandu Municipality, Kathmandu

‐ Tourism Police, Bhrikutimandap

‐ Ward Police Office Post, Shorakhuttae

‐ Ward Police Office, Durbar Marg

‐ Traffic Police Post Post, New bus Park

‐ Community Service Society, Lainchor

‐ Chibal Pariwar Club, Thamel

‐ Maitri Pariwar Club, Thamel

‐ New Thamel Peace Club, Thamel

Constraints and Limitations

Nepal has just stepped into the so‐called modern development era. The liberal economy of the democratic government has promoted new economic policy which has encouraged people to purchase motorized personal vehicles.

Nepal suffered a lot in economic front for the last 10 years due to its conflict situation. The tourist in‐flow has drastically reduced, lots of local industry closed, garment experts have moved to the US and European countries, and the carpet industry business has become monopolized by some Indian business communities. Hence when RECPHEC first introduced the concept of Carfree Cities, there were very little acceptance of the idea. Even the Nepal Hotel Association and Travel Agencies protested. It took long time to convince them.

The change in the political system has affected the commitment of Municipality staff and Police personnel. Nepal has experienced Kingʹs direct rule, absence of people’s representatives in Municipality, non‐cooperation by the government machinery to NGO like us who are fighting for democratic movement and culture. In addition, the Maoist movement disturbed the whole process of development. This situation has affected RECPHEC’s programme of public advocacy on ʺCar Free Citiesʺ.

In reflection to RECPHEC knowledge, the Car free cities concept is itself a new concept. It is a learning process for us.

Lack of secure longer term funding has not made it possible to develop a longer term strategic plan as yet.