Mayor Maharjan Aims to Transform Lalitpur Into a Silicon Valley of Nepal

Mayor of Lalitpur Metropolitan City, Chiribabu Maharjan, has a grand vision for his city. 

Mayor Maharjan, while receiving the National ICT Award under the category Public Sector-Province/Local Level on Friday, said he aims to transform the metropolis into the Silicon Valley of Nepal. 

The mayor stated that the metropolis has intensified the use of information technology in service delivery, he said, adding that the use of IT has improved public service delivery. Under the smart city concept, the metropolis has made significant achievements in terms of nature conservation and traffic management, Maharjan said. 

Through CCTV footages, we identify those involved in wrecking our hard work—the saplings that we  planted with great effort—he said, recalling that they had collected from those miscreants up to one lakh rupees as fine. 

Because of this initiative, Lalitpur is lush green these days, he said. 

In terms of emergency services, Maharjan said: Our recently-launched LMC alert system allows the residents of the metropolis to avail themselves of emergency assistance within four minutes by calling the toll-free number 1131. 

Full implementation of electronic building permit system (e-BPS) and installation of intelligent traffic lights, among others, reflect our long-term vision regarding technology infrastructure, he said: No one has to visit the LMC office to get approval for building designs, but this does not mean we are trying to snap ties between the government and the citizenry.

Lalitpur metropolis is already known in Nepal as an education hub, hence the plan to turn it into Nepal’s silicon valley, the mayor said: Most of the ICT award recipients are from Lalitpur, so I don’t think the vision for transforming the city into the silicon valley is an impossible ask.

The metropolis stands ready to work together with interested parties in the field of IT, he said, pledging to roll out the red carpet for the interested parties.