Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will construct a flyover and tunnel on the Tinkune-Koteshwar-Jadibuti section with concessional loan assistance. As there is a lot of traffic congestion in this area, a flyover and tunnel are going to be built as alternatives, according to media reports. The initiative is set to proceed with concessional support from Japan, totaling around Rs 30.8 billion.
Similarly, the Gwarko overpass has recently been opened to reduce congestion. The intersection frequently suffered heavy congestion as vehicles from Imadol-Satdobato and Koteshwar converged there. Once infamous for its traffic bottleneck, Gwarko is finally moving toward smoother commutes. However, this has already started creating bottlenecks and shifting traffic to nearby intersections. In addition, the Gwarko overpass cuts through the cityscape with high concrete barriers, limiting connectivity and permeability.
Based on context and intended purpose, overpasses or flyovers do not work effectively in cities like Kathmandu.
Objective of the flyover
If the purpose is to reduce congestion, flyovers in Kathmandu and other cities will not work effectively and may instead make the situation worse. Bangkok and Manila illustrate that flyovers built to relieve congestion often end up carrying heavy traffic themselves, failing to solve underlying traffic problems.
If the purpose is just to “ease congestion” without broader planning, they often fail and can even worsen traffic. However, if they are designed to separate traffic modes, facilitate logistics, or bypass bottlenecks, flyovers can function effectively—as seen in cities like Hong Kong, Singapore, and Tokyo. Still, this should be supported by a transit-first system. According to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA), a transit-first system prioritizes public transportation, walking, and cycling over private vehicles in city planning, investment, and everyday travel. Instead of designing cities around cars, such systems are built around buses, trains, metros, trams, cycling, and walking as the main ways people move.
Kathmandu is a city where development has revolved around cars for the past two to three decades. Building flyovers will only attract more cars through induced demand, making this approach unsustainable in the long run.
Public transportation mode share
“For highly transit-dependent cities such as Hong Kong, Seoul, and Singapore, public transport accounts for over 90%, 70%, and 60% of total passenger trips, respectively”, highlighting the dominance of transit-first systems in these cities. Similarly, public transport accounts for 70%–80% in Tokyo (Journal of Traffic and Transportation Engineering, 11, 2023, 179–191). In these cities, where strong public transport exists to handle daily commuters, flyovers are not significantly burdened by a small number of private cars.
In contrast, only 28% of residents in Kathmandu actually use public or informal transit, highlighting the city’s car-first transport system. Not prioritising mass transit and instead investing in infrastructure like road widening and constructing flyovers for private cars has been a consistent approach of the Government of Nepal. “If jeepneys are excluded, only about 22% of daily trips in Metro Manila rely on formal public transport”. Buses, jeepneys, and rail systems are poorly integrated. Manila, a sprawling, low-rise city like Kathmandu, suffers as a result—flyovers cut through neighbourhoods, disrupt local traffic, and create dead zones. Flyovers don’t improve conditions for pedestrians or cyclists and often make streets underneath less usable.
As per a 2019 BMA study, the public transit mode share in Bangkok was only 20.2%. This indicates the dominance of private modes over public ones. According to the Bangkok Expressway and Metro Public Company Limited (BEM), the Si Rat Expressway in Bangkok experienced an average daily traffic volume of approximately 1,039,590 vehicles in 2022, totalling about 379 million vehicle trips. In 2024, it rose to about 1,120,000 vehicles per day, totalling around 409 million trips. This shows traffic has been increasing by almost 4% annually. Flyovers therefore encourage more car use—as seen in Bangkok—because as more cars take advantage of the elevated roads, congestion eventually returns.
Flyovers work well in cities that are designed around a transit-first system. These cities achieve public transport dominance over private vehicles through efficient mass transit and integrated multimodal systems.
In Kathmandu, as the number of cars and two-wheelers rises each year, the share of trips made by public transportation is steadily declining. This is also due to the lack of a comprehensive mass transit system such as a metro, BRT, structured city bus network, trams, and a pedestrian and cycling network. No effective public transport currently exists to handle the city’s congestion. Attempting to tackle such congestion in Kathmandu with flyovers, without increasing public mode share, is bound to be unsuccessful.
Layers of transportation
Flyovers in Hong Kong succeed because they act as a supporting tool within a transit-first, pedestrian-friendly, high-density city, unlike in Kathmandu, where they are treated as the backbone of transport. For flyovers to be effective, they should complement a multilayered transport system rather than serve as the primary solution. Flyovers alone do not solve congestion; they are effective only when combined with strong public transport, smart traffic policies, and compact urban planning —elements that Kathmandu currently lacks.
Despite having metro systems and BRT, Manila and Bangkok still experience heavy traffic on flyovers due to incomplete networks, poor multimodal integration, and a lack of supporting infrastructure. By comparison, we can imagine that the situation in Kathmandu—where there is not even a metro or BRT system—would be far worse.
Urban morphology
With most buildings 4–5 stories high, Kathmandu spreads horizontally rather than vertically. This means streets and neighbourhoods are more connected at ground level. “Flyovers require massive structures and supporting walls, which physically and visually divide the areas beneath and beside them, making it more difficult for pedestrians, cyclists, and local traffic to cross, thereby fragmenting the urban fabric”. Flyovers dominate the skyline in low-rise areas, creating a bulky, intrusive look. They can block views, reduce sunlight, and make streets feel cramped or shadowed.
In Hong Kong, flyovers are integrated into a multi-layered transit system, causing less disruption at street level. Elevated flyovers are paired with skywalks and underground walkways, keeping cars and people on separate layers. Unlike in low-rise cities, they don’t cut communities in half but instead fit within the vertical urban fabric. Therefore, flyovers in low-rise, sprawling cities such as Kathmandu frequently have negative impacts that outweigh their benefits.
(The author, architect/urban designer, is President of Nepal Cycle Society.)