The Kathmandu Metropolitan City has decided to build a temporary park in Tinkune after its earlier attempt to construct a permanent park with the statue of Buddha failed to materialise. 

The KMC has removed the corrugated zinc sheets that were installed to fence the area in 2014 in view of the 18th Saarc Summit.  

The KMC’s earlier plan of building a green park in the area had hit a snag after failed negotiations with land owners regarding compensation. 

“We will come up with a new plan to build bigger and attractive infrastructure after we sort out the issues related to compensation. But for now we will build a temporary park there,” said Ishwor Poudel, chief and executive officer of the KMC. 

The KMC will spend around Rs 6 million to build the park, said Gyanendra Karki, spokesperson for the metropolis. 

A little over 50 ropanis of land in Tinkune—on the way to the airport—has remained unused for the last two decades for various reasons and was being used to park trucks and buses. It also used to serve as a place for many to practise driving.

Last year, Rudra Singh Tamang, former chief and executive officer of the KMC, had come up with an ambitious plan of constructing a 16-metre tall Buddha statue in the space and announced an outlay of  Rs 1.2 billion for the project. But it was not the first time a park was being planned in the area. In 2012, the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development had allocated Rs 10 million to build a park there. The compensation issue over the land has been going on for years. According to KMC officials, over Rs 100 million has been disbursed for 21 ropanis of land. 

The government had acquired the land in 1976 with a promise to compensate the owners. 

The process to hand over compensation, however, started only in 2005, but by that time the price of land in the Capital had already sky-rocketed, which led to disputes over the compensation amount.