Pokhara Metropolitan determines standard for nine lakes

POKHARA: MARCH. 31 – The Pokhara Metropolitan City has fixed the benchmark of the nine lakes in the Pokhara Valley. This issue had been lingering on for a long and was disputed.

The 55th meeting of the Pokhara Metropolitan City’s Executive on Wednesday fixed the standard for all the nine lakes including the Phewa Lake.

Accordingly, 30 metres standard has been set for the Phewa Lake. This means that 30 metres space around the lake should be left vacant.

Khagendra Subedi and others had filed a writ at the Supreme Court ten years back challenging the construction of several structures close to the lake. Following this, the Supreme Court had three years back issued directive order to all the three tiers of government to settle the dispute regarding the standard.

But the three tiers of the government had failed to settle the dispute for long. The dispute related to whether the standard should be set at 65 metres or 30 metres.

Likewise, the standard for Begnas and Rupa lakes has been fixed at 55 metres from 100 metres while that of the Dipang, Khaste, Gunde, Nyureni and Maidi lakes has been determined at 20 metres.

-RSS