Favorite Links
The city of Kathmandu was built by king Gun Kamdev in 723 A.D. It is said that Kathmandu was a lake in the past and was made habitable by Manjushree, who cut open the hill to south Chovar as to allow the water of the lake to flow out.
It is said that Kathmandu city was named after "Kastha-Mandap" meaning the temple made of wood in Sanskrit, an imposing pagoda near Hanuman Dhoka Palace. It was built in 1596 out of a single tree by King Laxmi Narashingha Malla.
It was established as a city sanitation Unit (Saphai Adda) in 1919. Later on it was changed to Municipality Office during the primership of Bhim Shamsher J. B. Rana in 1931. After the destructive tremor of 1933, modern urbanization was started and roads were planned For the first time municipality office distributed the land plots in concessional rates to the people. During the Primership of Padma Shamsher J. B. Rana a city Municipality board was formed but it could not function and all representative resigned.
After the democracy movement of 1950 Municipality Act was passed and Kathmandu City was divided into 18 sectors and 18 members were elected to form the municipality Board in 1953.
While the historic change took place in 1960 City Panchayat was established as per City Panchayat Act 1962.
After the National Democracy Movement of 1990 all local panchayats were dissolved and in City area municipality Boards have been formed. According to Municipality Act 1990, the Board consists of members including the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor.
From Friday Dec. 15, 1995 kathmandu Municipality has been elevated to Metropolitan, status under the provision of article 6 of the municipality Act 1991. KMC has been divided into 35 wards headed by ward Chairmans in each wards. Ward Chairman along with four ward members are elected by the public in every five years