Housing developers have lauded the government’s plan to introduce a strict law against the haphazard purchase and plotting of big land plots.

The Parliamentary Agriculture and Water Resources Committee recently cleared the way for the implementation of the amended Lands Act 2021 (1964).

The Act has been amended amid growing concern about increasing fragmentation of fertile land and unplanned urbanisation. In an absence of an effective land use and integrated resettlement policies, Nepal suffered much damage in the recent earthquake. For optimum utilisation, land it has been divided into 12 zones. They are agricultural, residential, commercial, industrial, mines and minerals, extraction of construction mineral sites, land of cultural and archaeological importance, river and rivulets, ponds and lakes, forest, public uses/open, risk-prone areas and others.

In the recently-announced budget for the next fiscal year, the government announced the Act would be enforced by the next fiscal year.

A Home Ministry report showed 602,257 private houses have been completely destroyed, while 285,099 have been damaged partially due to the April 25 earthquake and aftershocks. “This is a positive move as we had long been demanding such a strict law,” said Min Man Shrestha, general secretary of Nepal Land and Housing Developers’ Association. “The recent earthquake has become an eye opening example for many and we are quite optimistic about the law’s implementation.” He said only 3 percent of the homes in the Kathmandu valley are constructed by private sector developers. The strict enforcement of the law would allow only capable companies to develop land plots.

To modernise the land management system, the government plans to adopt modern day technologies. It has stated it will also study geological condition of major cities, including Kathmandu.

To provide one-spot service in earthquake-affected districts, the government will develop a master plan of district headquarters and the overall districts. This model will be gradually replicated in other districts.

The government will also make sure that under-construction and planned infrastructures are made earthquake-resistant. Inspection of infrastructures which are in existence will be done to access if they have complied with t standard. “A team will be assigned to inspect private as well as public buildings,” according to the budget.

Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, in his budget speech, said foreigners would be allowed to purchase apartments in Nepal. The provision was also announced in the budget for 2011-12. However, the plan fell apart.

“We have some 5,000 apartment units unsold and their value stands $500 million,” Shrestha said. “This amount is equivalent to 3 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and it could narrow Nepal’s trade deficit by 9 percent.”

He said no structural damage has been found in high-rise apartments in the Kathmandu valley due to the earthquake, due to which selling apartments to foreigners would not be a big issue.

source:the kathmandu post,17 July 2015