Kathmandu needs a rest, Before it is too Late.

Nepal was shrinking and expanding throughout the history, rulers have changed, systems have changed, conditions have changed, time has changed and almost everything has got changed in a long and very dynamic history of this country. But one thing has always been consistent and that's the capital. Kathmandu has always been the center of the Nepali politics. A lot of dynasties ruled the Kingdom of Nepal in the ancient times, but whoever ruled kept Kathmandu as the center. 

Even the creator of Modern day Nepal in which we reside, Prithvi Narayan Shah, made Kathmandu as the capital of the country, which has been unchanged yet. Having a capital at Kathmandu at that time might have been a a good option but "Is the case still the same?", it's the time to rethink.

Kathmandu metropolitan city covering 51 square kilometers holds the population of more than 1 Million according to the 8 years old census of 2011, which has certainly grown up significantly. This leaves more than 21000 people in a square kilometer of land. The Kathmandu district (in which the city of Kathmandu is located) has almost 1.8 Million people in a 395 square km of land at an density of about 5 thousand peoples per square kilometer. The whole Kathmandu Valley (including Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts) has more than 2.5 million people. The whole data sums up to Nepal's 10% population has been residing on less than 0.4% of the country's land. As a result of this there are hundreds of hospitals, thousands of schools and colleges, and a lot of other infrastructures has been concentrated in the small place to manage the demands, and these all work as a catalyst to invite more people and the city has been concentrating more and more by people, vehicles and pollution. 

Not only that, the valley is rich in cultural heritage and also a home to the only international airport of the country, the more the tourists will come the population will have a hike but unfortunately the resources are limited. The city has been so dense that there is hardly a piece of empty land to extend road or to build a new infrastructure. This thing will not only hamper the people but also to the global ecosystem, the mountains, the wildlife and the local heritages. Realizing the problems of the centralized system, our country has accepted the principle of decentralization and government seems to be working at it quite actively.

But this doesn't seem enough, the center will still remain center and people will still be tending to choose capital as their place of residence as the ease access to various services. The problems of pollution and overpopulation will still not be solved effectively. The capital will always have a advantage as always, the new institutions will still be opening on the capital. This will not only make lives difficult for people but also will severely hamper the environment. Kathmandu's pollution meters show the pollution index to 150 daily, that will rise more and more, if the pollution can't be controlled. Kathmandu is felt warmer an warmer every year that will still be rising every year if the number of peoples and vehicles can't be managed.

Perhaps the time Kathmandu's time has come to get relief from the crowd, perhaps we need to start shifting the offices at the center slowly to a less developed place but still easily accessible to every one. It is not possible to move the whole capital once but we can shift the offices one by one, then ministry and then finally the capital. Kathmandu is tired now, we need to give it a rest before this all turns uncontrollable.