Banepa as a satellite

Banepa, an old market town of 15,000, situated along a long and narrow vale just outside the eastern rim of Kathmandu Valley, is ideally located to serve as a satellite to metropolitan Kathmandu. It is already a trade and transportation hub to be reckoned with, and could help absorb the unchecked expansion that is presently underway in the Kathmandu towns.

Under its resident traders, Banepa has developed as the most dynamic township on the Amiko Highway, linking Kathmandu with Lhasa through the border post ofKodari. Today, Banepa serves as a staging point for the hills east of Kathmandu, in particular the districts of Kavre Palanchok, Sindhupalchok, Dolakha and Ramechap. The opening of the Lamosangu-Jiri road in 1984 enhanced the town´s reach, and there was a spurt of investment in buses and mini-buses by the business community here.

Banepa can be developed to provide off-farm employment to the people of the surrounding region and beyond, and it can serve as a distribution center for consumer goods and collection point for local produce. It can be the hub for the agricultural, educational and social services for which people might otherwise have to travel to Kathmandu.

For all its potential, however, Banepa has a long way to go. It does not yet have the required services and commercial base to serve Kathmandu as a satellite town. Today, itplays only a limited rote as a collection center for rural produce such as potatoes, beans and milk. There is little processing of local products for added value, except the rudimentary processing of rice, mustard oil and beaten rice, chiura. The town´s roleis limited to acting as a distribution center for urban consumer goods such as biscuits, cigarettes, sugar, "Mansuli" rice and imported cloth.

With the limited employment opportunities it has to offer, the town has failed to attract migrants bom the outlying hill areas who travel instead to Kathmandu, Tarsi and India. Due 10 the good transport link with the capital city, many Banepa residents and nearby villagers commute daily to work in Kathmandu. (The town is 26 kilometers away from Kathmandu´s main bus park, or an hour´s bus ride away.)

COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES
What are the barriers to realising Banepa´s potential? One major problem is the lack of local government´s decision-making power. At the and more diversified economic base simply do not exist.

All in all, the national Government´s policy to concentrate investment in the towns of Kathmandu Valley and in the Tarai has had an adverse impact on hill towns, like Banepa, which have been historically viable urban centers and must have a role to play in the future. The Government needs to change its policy and help develop Banepa by first identifying its comparative advantages.

The town´s advantages are, of course, its proximity to Kathmandu; its excellent transport access; its historical role as entry point to the eastern hills; its central location vis-a-vis the hinterland settlements like Sanga, Nala, Panauti and Rabiopi; the existence of a local entrepreneurial class; low land and rental prices; and the abundance of cheap labour. These benefits can be judiciously exploited to promote local area dev elopmentand, by extension, for managing the growth of Kathmandu.

Off-farm employment opportunities have to be expanded if the potential migrants from the eastern hills are to be redirected to Banepa. An encouraging start has already been made by starting a woolen sweater-knitting industry. Other export-oriented industries such as carpet- and garment-making can easily be added. For this, the municipal authorities must organise training for locals in production and marketing, and provide the necessary incentives.

Considering the agricultural surplus of the hinterland, Banepa´s agro-processing industries could be diversified to include potato-chips, fruit processing and dairy products. Also, rather than be limited to Banepa, it will be worth while to develop the Banepa-Panchkhal valley corridor, which may attract even major industries away from the Valley.

WAITING FOR THE ROAD
Banepa´s easy access to the eastern hills, and to Tibet, could easily convert it into a wholesale center for urban consumer goods as well as a major collection center for local produce. For this to happen, it is important to establish a wholesale market in Banepa with parking facilities for trucks, storage godowns and weighing and packing facilities.

Banepa will come into its own when the Kathmandu-Banepa- Janakpur highway is finally built and links the central hill-Nepal with the eastern Tarai. At that point, Banepa will emerge as the major transportation hub and service center for the eastern region of the country as a whole. The road was first proposed about 30 years ago by what was then known as the Road Transport Organisation (RTO), but it was forgotten in the intervening years. Recently, the plan h as received renewed attention and the Japanese Government is reported to be interested in conducting survey and design work. Besides boosting Banepa´s status, this highway would considerably lessen the vehicular traffic congestion at the Thankot entry point into Kathmandu and give rise to altered spatial development within the Valley.

It is not necessary, or even desirable, that all future facilities, industrial plants and social services be set up in Banepa alone. The other townships outside of Kathmandu, such as Dhunibesi to the west and Trisul to the north-west, could be developed to take up roles as satellite towns. The growth of small and intermediate towns in the Tarai and intier-Tarai will also indirectly help put a brake on the rapid growth of Kathmandu.

Kathmandu will continue to grow in the foreseeable future as the political, financial and cultural hub of the country. The development of a small town like Banepa would constitute an effort to better manage Kathmandu´s growth rather than to create an alternative to it. At the same time, looking ahead to Banepa´s development also means planning for the day when Banepa´s own growth might become unm anageable, its neighbourhood congested, and its environment despoiled. Banepa, too, must look to its future and plan, which Kathmandu Valley has failed to do thus far.