Knocking Down the Walls!

A school wall.

I believe in past blogs I have mentioned that the city of KTM is on a huge road-widening initiative.  Since May 2012, the city has looked like an earthquake hit it. There are piles of bricks and rubble everywhere as walls, storefronts, and road have been tore down and tore up!  Our area has seen some minor work, but this past week that changed.

A make-shift wall

 A couple bulldozers rumbled up the main road of our burb last weekend and as they rolled along, they would suddenly just swerve into a random wall, ripping huge, gaping holes.  They might travel a bit down that wall, pushing bricks and mortar over or sometimes they would back up and move down the road and then suddenly attack another random wall. The owners of the wall would all rush out in surprise, but really had no recourse to complain. They had been warned about a year ago, when men from the Urban Planning Dept. came through, measuring and spray painting the number of meters each wall needed to move back.  So since they had not done the work themselves, ( and were probably waiting for the city to do most of the work) the bulldozers came in to serve as a reminder.  So now as I walk to school I get to see into a lot of private property. The neighborhood is looking a bit like a war zone. Maybe by this time next year the road will be wider with a sidewalk, and actually paved. I will not hold my breath!