Govt to rank cities by 'Smartness Level'
KATHMANDU, May 5: The government has finalized the "Smart City" indicators for the year 2081 BS. Minister for Communications and Information Technology Prithvi Subba Gurung announced that the Council of Ministers approved the decision during its meeting on April 30.
Despite frequent mentions of "Smart City" in political speeches and governmental declarations, authorities have yet to give the concept tangible form. The absence of a clear definition has gradually diluted the relevance of the slogan.
The government previously pledged to develop Lumbini, Nijgadh, and Palungtar as smart cities and even prepared master plans for them. However, public discussion on these initiatives has largely faded. While the information technology-driven "Smart City" concept continues to gain global momentum, Nepal has made little progress in the field. Still, the Ministry of Urban Development emphasized that it could not abandon the agenda and has therefore introduced specific indicators.
The ministry designed these indicators to assess the "smartness level" of urban centers. It based the evaluation on four core pillars: smart citizens, smart economy, smart governance, and smart infrastructure. The benchmarks aim to help all levels of government measure just how "smart" their cities really are.
Officials have set 83 indicators to evaluate smart cities on a 100-point scale. These include factors like urban planning, income generation, citizen charters, and access to electronic services. Based on total scores, cities will be classified into five levels-Level 1 through Level 5. Cities scoring above 90 percent will fall into Level 1, while those failing to meet the indicators will be placed in Level 5 as non-compliant.