Author: Madan K. Manandhar
AIT Library Call Number: AIT Thesis no. HS-89-32
Year: 1989
Academic Program: Human Settlement (HS)
Type: Thesis (M.Sc.) – Asian Institute of Technology, 1982
Examination Committee: Hiran D. Dias (Chairperson); Hans Detlef Kammeier, Toshikatsu Iwami (Examination Committee Members)
Abstract: Regional development thinking and planning has relied heavily on the role of growth poles ever since Perroux and Boudeville put forward their views on the spatial aspects of the development process. In many countries, the growth pole approach has received wide attention in the past two deceases or so as a vital tool for regional development. Nepal has been no exception. In planning of economic development, Nepal has adopted a growth centre (rather than growth pole) strategy to supplement the general policy of national economic development for reducing regional disparities in the country. The present study investigates how successful this approach has been in Nepal as a strategy to develop the rural hinterland by analysing and evaluation some socio-economic impacts of Birendranagar, the growth centre for the Mid Western Region, on the rural areas of Surkhet. The analysis is divided into three parts. The first part attempts to assess the growth of birendranagar subsequent to it being designated as a growth centre. The second part analyses changes in income, employment, occupation, purchasing and selling patterns and other economic services while the last part deals with the use of social services like education, health, recreation, by the people in the surrounding rural hinterland and their attitude towards Birendranagar as a growth centre. As a part of the findings, some important indicators of change were identified. This study showed that Birendranagar growth centre had a negligible multiplier effect of income employment in its rural hinterland although the growth centre itself has benefitted in many ways. The large domestic and foreign investment in the growth centre which was expected to generate growth and development in the region has not yet shown any signs of achieving these results. The expected trickle down effects have not taken place and instead there has been a siphoning off effect which leaves the surrounding people relatively poorer and more frustrated. This is due mainly to the inability of the
Scholarship Donor(s): Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA)
Note: A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
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