Implementation experiences of land pooling projects in Kathmandu Valley

To facilitate planned development through adequate supply of serviced plots for housing, a full fledged and more positive approach called the land pooling scheme was initiated in 1988 in the Kathmandu Valley. Today, the valley has managed to implement 11 projects after hard negotiations with the landowners. However, no review has been made so far as to what extent they were able to meet the overall planning objectives. This paper makes an attempt to assess the overall implementation experiences of land pooling projects in the valley. At the beginning, the paper introduces: the urban land management challenges, the concept of land pooling and the international experiences, the Nepalese context of urban land development, and the land pooling projects of Kathmandu Valley. The paper then makes an assessment of the implementation experiences: strengths and weaknesses, and finally, concludes by making recommendations to improve the performance of the future land pooling projects to achieve the urban planning objectives mentioned above.