Gaidakot Municipality

Gaindakot
गैंडाकोट नगरपालिका
Municipality
Gaindakot

Location in Nepal

Coordinates: 27°44′N 84°23′E / 27.73°N 84.39°ECoordinates: 27°44′N 84°23′E / 27.73°N 84.39°E
Country    Nepal
Zone Lumbini Zone
District Nawalparasi District
Population (2011)
 • Total 55,205[1]
Time zone Nepal Time (UTC+5:45)

Gaindakot (Nepali: गैंडाकोट) is a municipality in Nawalparasi District in the Lumbini Zone of southern Nepal. It became a municipality in May 2014 by merging the existing Mukundapur, Amarapuri, and Gaindakot VDCs.[2][3] It is situated on the shore of Narayani River in the lap of Maula Kalika temple. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census, it had a population of 55,205 and 13,024 individual households according to 2011 Nepal census.[4]

Media

To Promote local culture, Gaindakot has one FM radio station Vijaya FM[5] – 101.6 MHz which is a Community radio Station.Another is MTV Mukundasen tv which is the 1st channel of Gaindakot

Tourist Attractions

Maula Kalika

Gaindakot is famous nationwide for Maula Kalika temple and for Maula hill hiking. The temple is situated at the top of the Maula hill mountain (approx 561 m above sea level) where people climb around 2 km long trail. Maula Kalika is popular for its 360-degree panoramic view of the entire Chitwan including Chitwan National Park on the south and Mt. Manaslu and Kaligandaki river on the north. The temple is famous for sunrise view also. Many high-ranking officials of Nepal, including presidents, former kings and foreign dignitaries, have visited the temple. Dasain (Vijaya dashami or Bada Dasain) festival in Sept–October and in March–April (Chaite Dasain) are peak seasons. Maula Kalika is the symbol of Hindu goddess Kali or Kalika is associated with eternal energy, the symbol of power, harmony and new beginning. The attractive view of narayani river and many houses can be seen from there.

Dhodeni

Dhodeni is located on the northern part of Gaindakot's hilly area sand-witched by two mountains at an altitude of about 300 m from sea level. Dhodeni is populated by Gurung, Magar and some Kumal tribes within few hundred houses. Dhodeni is widely popular for traditional dance and party events during festive seasons around October.

Narayani River

Kaligandaki river and Narayani River flows north, east and south of Gaindakot. Narayani river is the deepest and also one of the biggest rivers of Nepal. The Narayani Bridge over the river connects Chitwan District with Nawalparasi District of Nepal. Small islands, like Nagarban in Narayani river are popular picnic spots. Eastern side of the Narayani river bank in Gaindakot is regarded as the holy site for Hindu rituals and well as a playground for school children. For long time Narayani river had been a life-line of Gaindakot as the main source of drinking water supply irrespective of the season and water quality until the late 1990s.

A lot of people walk over Narayani Bridge for cool evening air and scenic sunset view.

View of Narayani Bridge and Gaindakot

Narayangadh

Narayangadh in Bharatpur city, is the main shopping and commercial area for Gaindakot residents. Is the main transit point for all the vehicles traveling via east-west Mahendra Highway and also for the people traveling from Kathmandu, Gorkha, and Pokhara through Mugling road. Devghat is an important religious site for elderly people of Gaindakot.

Recently, Narayangadh has become a retail and commercial capital of whole Chitwan district and Bharatpur Municipality. It is also the center for hospitality industry which includes Hotels, Lodges, Restaurants etc. and transportation hub for Chitwan district.

One has to travel through the Narayani Bridge to connect Narayanghat and Gaindakot.

Lumbini

Gaindakot is an entry point of Lumbini on the eastern side of the Lumbini Zone. Lumbini, the birthplace of Lord Buddha, a World Heritage Site, is situated about 130 km. west of Gaindakot. Lumbini is also the administrative zone of Gaindakot VDC.It is visited by many tourist

Chitwan National Park

Nearby Chitwan National Park, a World Heritage Site, is home to one horn rhino's, elephants, royal Bengal tigers, crocodiles, deers and many other wild animals. It is the third largest tourist destination in Nepal after Kathmandu and Pokhara. Gaindakot's name is derived from the rhino, as rhino's are said to be once dominating Gaindakot plains until the mid 20th century.

Institutions

Schools & Colleges and Educators

There are several schools in this small town, educating thousands of children. A mix of government, private and community based education institutions are in operation. The academic performance is fairly high. Senior teachers are active. Besides this, a lot of students go to Schools in Chitwan as well.

Schools

Financial Institutions

There are few banks and cooperatives in serving the banking needs of local communities and to the residents of Nawalparasi District.

Western Union Money transfer services is also available in Gaindakot. People mostly rely on banking and financial services available in Narayangarh, Chitwan that has about 40 Banks and Financial Institutions.

Remittance Services

Remittance facilities are available through Banks, Western Union.

Agriculture

Rice field in Gaindakot Town in Nawalparasi, Lumbini Nepal.

Gaindakot's plain land is suitable for agriculture. Rice, wheat, mustard, corn, millet, and potato are among the crops grown across the seasons in Gaindakot.

The land on the northern area of East-West national highway before the hilly area is traditionally used for farming due to the better irrigation system. Farmers and peasants in Gaindakot are reliable on monsoon season as the most efficient irrigation source.

A small irrigation dam is located on the way toward Dhodeni, north of Ranital. Farming in Gaindakot is non-dependent on modern farm equipment except tractors and is mostly conducted through "Kuto-Kodali", the traditional way of Nepali agriculture. Gaindakot is also famous for production Sagar Honey, nationally famous for its taste. As the owner's son Sidhartha Gautam told us.

Industries

There are few small to big industries in Gaindakot. Nepal's only paper factory, the "Bhrikuti Paper and Pulp" factory is located in Gaindakot. Gaindakot has got some small scale textile industries, boring industries, metal industries and gas refilling industries. Dynamic Towel Industry, M G Textile are based in Gaindakot. The "Bhrikuti Paper and Pulp" factory has been shut down since 2011 due to some unknown reasons. Chitwan Match Factory once established in the late 1980s operating from Jajua on the east of Gaindakot town has been shut down in the 1990s probably due to the shift of market demand on lighter.

Entertainment & Communication

"Vijaya fm" is the local radio station of Gaindakot. People in Gaindakot also listen to "Kalika music FM", "Kalika FM","Chitwan Online FM" covering Gaindakot operate from Bharatpur. In addition to private operators services government's radio and television channels is also available. International satellite television channels like CNN, BBC, STAR TV, NDTV, ESPN, NHK World, National Geographic, Discovery Channel are also widely viewed channels.

Land line telephone services and mobile telephone services are available to the majority of areas. There are multiple private Internet service providers operating from Bharatpur. The local dialing code is 056 which is shared from Chitwan District instead of Nawalparasi District itself.

Dhaulagiri Cinema Hall was the only movie theater in the Maula Kalika Road. It has been now converted to a Hotel. So, People of Gaindakot go to Narayanghat for watching movies in theaters.

Transportation

Bharatpur Airport located on the south of Gaindakot is the nearest airport connecting to Kathmandu. Four domestic airlines and one government airline make 7 to 11 flights a day. Mahendra (East West) Highway connects Gaindakot to Kankarbhitta in the east to Bhimdatta (formerly Mahendranagar) in the west of the country while another highway connects Gaindakot with Kathmandu and Pokhara via Narayangadh. Bus, Micro bus and other land transportation are available for long route journey and for internal transportation taxi, rickshaw and car/jeep hiring is available from Pulchok Narayangadh, next to Narayani bridge. Transportation facilities within Gaindakot has developed a lot over the past few years. Now most of the roads are pitched especially the areas nearby Mahendra Highway. Large number of people use motor bikes, bicycles, few use private car. Public transportation are regularly available across the highway and from pulchowk to maulakalika hill base.

Drinking Water Supply

There are two projects extracting and processing drinking water supply for the households. Underground water and brook water from Jay Shree Khola is used processed and supplied through different distribution channels. Jaluke drinking water supply in Ward no. 1, (2 & 4) Partly, which is open water.

NPO/NGO

Vijaya Development Resource Centre (VDRC- Nepal), initially known as Vijaya Youth Club, is a non-profit member based social development organization. It has been working in the community development sector for the past 35 years with a vision of equitable, peaceful, affluent and self-reliant society. VDRC is now recognized as a national level NGO with multidisciplinary human resources and good infrastructure facilities. It has successfully completed a number of community development projects across the country and has made a significant contribution in bringing positive changes through a people-centered development approach.

SAHAMATI ('consensus' in Nepali), is a non-governmental, non-political and non-profit organization established in 2001 has its headquarters in Gaindakot. It works for equitable development with community-centered approach, focusing on social justice and social transformation, human rights development and self-help promotion in cooperation with similar international organizations.

References

  1. ↑ "Population statistics of Nepal in the year 2011 A.D".
  2. ↑ "72 new municipalities announced". My Republica.com. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Government announces 72 new municipalities". The Kathmandu Post. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
  4. ↑ "Nepal Census 2001". Nepal's Village Development Committees. Digital Himalaya. Retrieved 18 December 2008.
  5. ↑ "Vijaya fm".

External links