The damaged road in the heart of Thamel in Kathmandu remains in a mess one month after it was dug to lay water pipeline.

This area is Thamel’s tourist hub. Residents, businesspersons, tourist operators and tourists from Europe and Americas have complained the inconvenience caused by the damaged road.

A month ago, the Melamchi Water Supply Project (MWSP) had dug the road in Narsingh Chowk and Ganesh Man Sing Path. They removed asphalt layered on top of the road using an excavator. Since then work has not progressed.

Thamel-based tourism entrepreneur Tula Ram Paudel told the Post, “The road becomes muddy when it rains and when the weather is sunny and warm the whole area remains dusty”.

The bad road has decreased Paudel’s business because tourists and resident avoid this area.

The Department of Road (DoT) in and Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) asphalted the five km road section of inner Thamel during the Saarc summit held in 2014. Thamel Tourism Development Council former President Ramsaran Thapaliya said, “More than 80 percent of international tourists prefer to stay in Thamel hotels. What impression would they have about Nepal walking through muddy and messy road,” said Thapaliya.

When the Post contacted MWSP’s spokesperson Leela Prasad Dhakal of the Project Implementation Directorate of the Kathmandu Upatayaka Khanepani Limited, he said, he was not aware about it.

 “I guess, they might be installing valve chambers. We have already installed the pipeline in the area,” he replied and promised to inform the Post by Tuesday.

Then the Post contacted with the KMC Chief Executive Officer Yadav Prasad Koirala also replied that he is ‘unaware’ when the Post called him. “We will soon contact the MWSP and direct it to complete the work as soon as possible,” he said.

The KMC, TTDC along with tourism entrepreneurs, hoteliers, and members of civil societies last October had announced Thamel as ‘a vehicle-free area’. Traffic police strictly enforce this rule in every nook and corner of Thamel.