Kathmandu’s parking nightmare continues: Unplanned bans, unaffordable parking fees

Across the Kathmandu Valley, navigating the regular streets in a vehicle is very frustrating. The city’s ambitious policies, strict parking bans, and mandated construction requirements indicate that we have improved in regulation, but the day-to-day reality that the residents have been facing tells a very different story.

Over the past few years, local authorities have introduced several parking regulations. Kathmandu metropolis mandated that newly constructed houses and commercial buildings allocate 20 per cent of ground-floor area strictly for parking. Furthermore, the metropolis also designated specific parking zones and standardised fee structures across key zones. However, implementation remains deeply flawed.