Butwal

The confluence of country’s two major highways, Mahendra Highway and Siddhartha Highway, Butwal Municipality was formed in 2016 BS. It was on Mangsir 16, 2071, it was promoted to Sub-metropolitan City by Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development. Located in Rupandehi district of Province No.5, this sub-metropolis shares it eastern border with Devdaha Municipality and western border with Sainamaina Municipality. Similarly, the then Dovan VDC and Tilottama Municipality lies in the northern and southern part of this sub-metropolitan city.

With a dense forest under its territory, this sub-metropolis was entitled with “Green City of Nepal” in 2019. This city stands beside the bank of Tilottama orTinau River, and at the northern edge of the Terai plain below the Siwalik Hills. This sub-metropolitan city derived its name from Batauli Bazaar, the town’s oldest residential area which is located on the western bank of TinauRiver. Butwal is a lively city comprising the panoramic views of the combination of hills and plains.

Located towards the center part of the country, this sub-metropolis connects western Nepal with Kathmandu through highway and air links (via airport at Siddharthanagar). It is one of the fastest-growing cities in Nepal and famous for education, infrastructure, highway, health and safety, communication, trade and banking facilities. This sub-metropolis is also close to neighboring India has road connections to the Indian border at Sunauli as well as country’s hilly towns like Tansen and Pokhara. It has hold the title of being “The Best City in Nepal” five times in a row.

This is a relatively newly urbanized area that has emerged and grown rapidly since 1960. With the completion of Siddhartha Highway in 1968, starting from the border at Sunauli through Butwal to Pokhara and then in the 1990s Mahendra Highway across the full east–west expanse of Nepal’s Terai, i.e.Mechi Zone in the east to Mahakali Zone in the West, Butwal have made a tremendous progress in the country.

This sub-metropolis is very hot in temperature which reaches up to 45 degree Celsius during the summer. Also considered to be the administrative headquarters of Lumbini Zone, this sub-metropolis is home to 138,742 people as of National Census 2011. However, due to the appropriate geographical setting and huge opportunities as well as facilities, the population of this sub-metropolis is increasing rapidly and consists of people of mixed groups and castes with people migrating from adjoining hilly districts especially Palpa, Arghakhanchi Parbat, Gulmi and Syanja as well as nearby Terai areas.

This sub-metropolis is considered to be the land of Lahure and a huge number of Gurungs and Magars have joined British as well as Indian Army forces.

Towards the economic aspect, this sub-metropolis is mostly a commercial and trading city, an upcoming link city for the nearby tourist spots. The gross domestic product of Butwal was about US$1 billion in 2018 making one of the major city in Nepal in terms of economy. The economy of Butwal centers around trade, services and industries. The old trading spots are Traffic Chowk, B P Chowk, Amarpath, Raj Margh Chaurah and Nepalgunj Road. Besides modern shopping, a traditional form of market called Haat Bazar, runs twice a week. It has the second largest vegetable market in the country. All kinds of traders, farmers and entrepreneurs sell goods and vegetables directly to the retail and wholesale customers in busy market setup.

Service aspects of the economy are mainly centered on banking, education, transportation and health sectors. Thus, increasing numbers of people are involved in these sectors for their jobs.

It is also a busy land-route to enter Nepal from India for tourists and others. Thus, Butwal is witnessing huge investments in the hospitality sector as well. To boost up tourism, the government plans to set up an international conference centre at Ramnagar in Butwal. All these developments hint towards a large economic potential for development of the region.

With a total of 101.61 square kilometer area, it is divided into 22 wards.

Shiva PrashadSubedi from Nepal Communist Party is Mayor and Goma Acharya from the same party is Sub-Mayor of this sub-metropolis.

The table below shows the current law, procedures and guidelines active in Butwal Sub-metropolitan City.

Table 1. List of laws, procedures and guidelines adopted by Butwal Sub-metropolitan City:

Fiscal Profile:

Table on fiscal profile of Butwal Sub-metropolitan City:

Source: http://butwalmun.gov.np/