adoption of betterment levies to implement GLD roads Joshi, Iswar Lal creator Archer, Ray W. Chairperson Kammeier, Hans Detlef Examination Committee Morishita, Hideharu Examination committee DAAD Scholarship donor text series technical report th Bangkok Asian Institute of Technology 1999 continuing eng 190 leaves The Nepalese government adopted the Guided Land Development (GLD) concept in 1988 as a means of creating networks of public roadways in urban fringe areas at no cost to government for town expansion. It was adopted for the Kathmandu Valley and other towns with a Town Development Committee (TDC). The concept is that the TDC can form a unit to plan networks of local roads that are located along the edge of the rural land parcels with each landowner donating a 2 to 3m strip of their land for the roadway. These land donations are more than compensated for by the increase in the market value of the remaining land parcel that has gained a public roadway frontage. In Lalitpur, the TDC designed some 125 km of GLD roads but only 27 km of these have been opened by early 1999, mainly due to the need to pay money compensation to the landowners that provide land but receive no benefit from the new roadway. There is also the need for funds to construct the roads at least to the minimum standard of an all-weather gravel road with drains. As the TDC has no funds for these expenditures other sources of funding have to be found. The study investigates the potential of the betterment levy technique (BL) to finance the opening and construction of GLD roads from the land and funds contributed by the landowners fronting the road. The main concept of the betterment levy technique is to recover the capital cost of the project from the landowners by recouping part of their land value increments from them. To test the practical application of the technique in Nepalese context, seven BL schemes were prepared for seven separate road opening and/or improvement projects for submission to the benefiting landowners so as to ascertain their acceptability to the landowners as the beneficiaries of the schemes. All the schemes benefited the landowners mainly by the net increase in their land values and by giving them road access for their land and/or improving the road. The three schemes which were prepared to open the GLD roads showed that the market value of the land goes up well above the scheme costs by opening the road. The support from the majority of landowners for these schemes was due to the large net land value increment and user benefits that the opening the GLD roads would give them, plus the fair sharing of the costs and benefits, plus the affordable cost of the scheme. Hence, it can be concluded that that the betterment levy technique would be an appropriate tool for the implementation of GLD roads in Nepal. However, the net increase in land value would not be sufficient in itself to implement the schemes successfully as some landowners may not support the schemes, and legislative backing for the technique is essential. In this regard, recommendations are given for amendments to the existing Town Development Act, 1988-1997, on the cost sharing basis, up front payments and other implementation mechanisms. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, School of Environment, Resources and Development Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 1999 Land use, Urban Nepal Kathmandu Asian Institute of Technology. http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B12202 http://203.159.5.9/ait-thesis/detail.php?q=B12202 110200 20260818134653.0