The biggest metropolis of the country, Kathmandu Metropolitan City on Friday unveiled a budget of Rs 25.41 billion for the fiscal year 2022-23. This is an increase by over six billion rupees from last year’s Rs 18.9 billion.

Kathmandu’s budget was presented by City’s deputy mayor, Sunita Dangol, at its 11th municipal assembly and Lalitpur’s annual budget was presented by Lalitpur’s mayor, Chiri Babu Maharjan.

Like earlier years, Kathmandu this year also has given more emphasis to infrastructure development. Dangol has allocated 49.57 percent of the total budget or 11.08 billion for infrastructure development. Likewise, Rs4.68 billion has been set aside for running the City’s offices and Rs 4.46 for good governance related programmes.

The deputy mayor said the City will give priority to restoration and maintenance of historical stone spouts and monuments and construction of falchas (traditional public rest houses) at various bus stations.

Dangol has also given emphasis to retrofitting the 2015 earthquake-damaged historical Bagdurbar [palace]. The previous mayor, Bidya Sundar Shakya, had drawn widespread criticism after giving approval to demolish the quake-damaged palace.

The City also plans to restore Dabali (traditional open spaces) and construct an amphitheatre. Similarly, the city has also announced plans to segregate garbage at source and convert ‘waste to energy’ in an attempt to solve the garbage problem. This time the City has also allocated funds for women empowerment job policies, self-employment programmes for differently abled people, and e-libraries. Also, Dangol has allocated a budget for the Nepali Folk Musical Instrument Museum at Tripureshwar.

Similarly, the neighbouring Lalitpur Metropolitan City also unveiled its annual budget on Friday totalling Rs6.35 billion, which is an increase by over 1 billion from last year. Lalitpur has announced plans to run a ‘call center’ to listen to public grievances. The Kathmandu Metropolitan City launched its ‘Call Center’ on June 6.