patterns of population growth in nepal - Institute for Social and ...

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units i.e., towns, it is diffieul t to decompose the
growth of urban areas into each component.
However,
an attempt to understand the process of growth of
towns may be very much helpful in urban growth
patterns.
Among the 8 towns which registel:ed a continuous
growth over successive decades, Kathmandu,
capital city of Nepal, is one among them.
This is
the only prime city of Nepal which has more than
one lakh population. In spite of being the focal
point of socio-economic development, locus of political
and economic powers and centre for education
and administJ:ation, the growth rate of Kathmandu
city until 1970s was relatively slow.
The main
reason was that the city specially the inner city
had approached the saturation point in providing
housing and tbel:e was less and less space left every
year for additional housing.
However, the growth
rate has been much higher in the outer city and in
the fl:inge al:eas (Joshi, 1974). During 1971-81,
Kathmandu city picked up its momentwn in annual
gl:owth rate which stood at 4.47 per cent compal:ed
to 2.17 pel: cent during 1961-71.
The pl:obable l:eason
for high growth could be the merger of the outer