Pokhara Lekhnath Metropolitan City has become the country’s largest metropolis. Occupying an area of 464.24 sq km— nine times larger than Kathmandu, 18 times larger than Lalitpur and 2.5 times larger than Bharatpur— Pokhara Lekhnath Metropolitan City includes Chapakot, Mauja, Puranchaur and Kaskikot VDCs; wards 3 and 9 of Bhadaure Tamagi VDC; 1, 4 and 9 wards of Majhthana VDC; and wards 1 and 5 of Kalila VDC. The metropolis has been divided under 33 wards, and its current population stands at 413,397. 

 Laxmi Prasad Tripathi, chairman of Lekhnath Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the government should now work on a master plan to manage the metropolis.

Noting that the city’s space is shrinking rapidly because of unmanaged land plotting and urbanisation, Tripathi said the government should develop the city through Land Development Programme. 

Under the new local restructure, the country now has four metropolises, 13 sub-metropolises, 246 municipal councils and 481 village councils.