Has Dhangadhi Sub Metropolitan accomplished it's plan of becoming a smart city?

Birendra Bhatt, Dhangadhi: Sustainable development needs to be planned immediately, for medium and long term management. Scattered development work does not show investment. The plan for the all-around development of the Dhangadhi sub-metropolitan which has a total of 19 wards, has not been prioritized.

The sub-metropolitan had widely publicized the establishment of a planning bank to make Dhangadhi a smart city. Mayor Nrip Bahadur odd claimed that the plans submitted to the Planning Bank would be implemented by prioritizing them. But even as the term draws to a close, the work has not been completed.

Despite being the cornerstone of smart city development for the development of Dhangadhi, the various construction plans have not been able to draw a blueprint for sustainable development, says economist Prof Dr. Rajendra Vir Chand. The sub-metropolitan has failed to formulate a roadmap for long-term development. "Creating a framework makes it easier to develop on a priority basis," said Chand, who is also a professor of economics at the Kailali Multipurpose Campus.

The sub-metropolitan claimed that the development partner bodies would be allowed to work only after determining the priority of the plan by making guidelines for such bodies while they were working in their way. The plan was defined as an important step for bank and smart city development. The issue of the planning bank's assistance in determining the priority of the scheme is also unresolved at this time. Chief Administrative Officer of Dhangadhi Sub-metropolitan Ram Lal Shrestha said that there was no information about Smart City and Planning Bank.

'There is no information about Smart City and Planning Bank. "I am trying to get information on this," he said. In the local elections held in 2074 BS, Wade, who was the mayoral candidate, had raised the slogan of a smart city. But after winning the election for almost five years, the leadership was like the city, it is still the same. The mayor has failed to implement the project to make Dhangadhi city a smart city. The sub-metropolitan has failed to implement the issues including wide roads, cleanliness, and beauty of the city within the infrastructure to reach the level of a smart city.

Economist Chand says that smart city should not be made an election slogan for cheap popularity. He said that the mayor has limited the implementation from the smart city to the planning bank only in the election slogan. Stakeholders say that the people of the sub-metropolis have not been able to experience the development even after the end of their term due to the failure of the elected representatives to prioritize the plans for the all-around development of the sub-metropolitan.