KATHMANDU, June 25: The dispute between Summit Hotel and Apartments, located at Kupandole Heights in Lalitpur, and the nearby Hotel Greenwich Village has come to the fore. Although the Ministry of Infrastructure Development (MoID) has been attempting to resolve the dispute, it has yet to succeed. The government had amended the guideline related to apartment and building construction, allowing Summit to obtain approval for its building plan.
Under the amended standard, the setback requirement — the amount of land that must be left vacant on the side facing neighboring properties — for buildings taller than 17 meters was reduced. This allowed taller buildings to be constructed even on smaller plots of land.
The dispute between Summit and Greenwich began after cracks appeared in surrounding houses and the Greenwich building during excavation work for the construction of Summit. The dispute has continued to intensify.
The MoID has been attempting to settle the dispute by holding discussions involving representatives from both sides as well as officials from Lalitpur Metropolitan City (LMC), but the dispute remains unresolved. The MoID called a meeting between the two sides last Tuesday with representatives from LMC and the ministry present. Similar discussions had also been held earlier.
During excavation work for Summit, six houses around the construction site and the Greenwich building developed cracks and were damaged. The major dispute now revolves around compensation. The dispute with the owners of the six nearby houses has been settled, but the issue with Greenwich remains unresolved.
Greenwich operators have claimed that a final agreement on compensation has not been reached with Summit.
As the dispute escalated, Greenwich operators began expressing their grievances on social media, saying they had suffered severe injustice because of Summit. Summit representatives, however, have said that Greenwich’s claims are not true and that the allegations are an attempt to tarnish their reputation.
Greenwich has demanded that construction work at Summit be completely halted until the compensation issue is fully resolved. It has demanded that Summit compensate it based on a technical report to restore the Greenwich building to its condition before the damage occurred.
The Greenwich side has also demanded compensation for business losses incurred due to the hotel’s closure. According to the hotel operators, restoring Greenwich to its previous condition would cost Rs 310 million based on the technical report. They have also demanded that Summit bear the business losses incurred due to the closure.
Greenwich has remained closed for the past three years.
“Until the compensation issue is fully resolved, our demand is that construction work at Summit should be stopped,” said Greenwich Managing Director Praveen Acharya. “We have not reached a final agreement with Summit regarding compensation. Summit should stop construction until then.”
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Meanwhile, Summit Administration Chief Rajendra Kumar Thapa said he has evidence showing that Greenwich has already received Rs 96.6 million from Summit as compensation. He said claims made by Greenwich on social media that it had not received any compensation were misleading.
“Greenwich has demanded Rs 610 million. Its operators are bargaining in the name of compensation,” Thapa said. “The compensation demanded by Greenwich is much higher than the actual loss.”
Greenwich operators have also expressed dissatisfaction over the building approval granted by LMC for Summit’s construction.
“We are not satisfied with how LMC approved Summit’s design. There has also been manipulation in the approval process,” Acharya said.
Responding to the allegation, Summit Administration Chief Thapa said claims that there was irregularity in the building approval process were completely misleading.
“To obtain building approval, consent must be obtained from the Kathmandu Valley Development Authority, the Ministry of Urban Development and Lalitpur Metropolitan City. An environmental impact assessment is also required. Claims that approvals were obtained by paying bribes at all these places are completely false and misleading,” Thapa said.
During the construction of Summit, six neighboring houses and the Greenwich building were damaged on the night of April 7, 2023.
“Cracks appeared in the surrounding land, leaving nearby houses and buildings at risk of collapse,” Greenwich operator Acharya said.
Immediately after the incident, a discussion was held among all concerned stakeholders under the leadership of LMC Mayor Chiri Babu Maharjan. It was agreed that an empowered committee would be formed under the coordination of the metropolitan city deputy mayor and that Summit would provide compensation to the affected parties. It was also decided that construction work would remain halted until compensation was provided.
Both Summit and Greenwich operators have presented different claims regarding compensation. This remains the main unresolved issue between the two sides.
Summit resumed construction from December 27, 2023, claiming that the compensation issue had been settled. Greenwich, however, maintained that the compensation issue was unresolved and submitted an application to the then Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), demanding that construction be halted until the matter was settled.
Summit provided compensation to Greenwich until April 25, 2025. Summit’s building approval was granted on April 30, 2025. However, Summit had already started construction work in July 2022.
Greenwich submitted an application to the then MoUD on April 9, 2026, demanding that Summit’s construction work be stopped. The MoID has since held several rounds of tripartite meetings and discussions on the issue.
Businessman and Nepali Congress (NC) leader Binod Chaudhary’s son Rahul Chaudhary is the chairperson of Summit. Nirvana Chaudhary, NE Group Chairman Ravi Bhakta Shrestha and Sharma & Company Chairman Ramesh Sharma are among its investors.
How was the guideline amended?
It has been found that the government amended the Fundamental Construction Bylaws on Settlement Development, Urban Planning and Building Construction (Second Amendment), 2022, before Summit, chaired by Rahul Chaudhary, began construction.
The amendment was made when Ram Kumari Jhakri, a leader of the CPN (Unified Socialist), was serving as Minister for Urban Development in the government led by NC President Sher Bahadur Deuba.
A ministry official said the standards were amended due to political access and influence.
Accordingly, the Fundamental Construction Bylaws on Settlement Development, Urban Planning and Building Construction (Second Amendment), 2022, was published in the Nepal Gazette on May 30, 2022.
After the 2015 earthquake, the government introduced the Fundamental Construction Bylaws on Settlement Development, Urban Planning and Building Construction, 2015, to ensure open spaces and safer buildings.
Under the previous standard, buildings up to 100 meters in height were required to maintain a 25-meter setback. However, the standard was amended, reducing the setback requirement to only 12 meters.
The change paved the way for Summit to move ahead with construction.
The previous provision stated that for any building taller than 17 meters, approval would be granted only if the ratio between building height and setback toward neighboring properties was maintained at 4:1, with the minimum setback not less than five meters.
This meant that for every four floors constructed, space equivalent to one floor had to be left vacant. Similarly, an eight-storey building required open space equivalent to two floors.
Under the revised standard, buildings above 45 meters only require a 5.2-meter setback.
“This means that for a seven-storey building, leaving open space equivalent to one floor is enough,” a senior official at the MoUD said. “The previous 25-meter setback requirement was reduced to 12 meters. Earlier, one floor of land had to be left vacant for every four floors, but now the requirement has been changed to one floor for every seven floors.”
“The guideline appears to have been amended in a way that benefits Summit,” the official said.
Following the amendment, construction of the 16-storey hotel and apartment project began with an investment of Rs 9 billion. During construction, cracks appeared and damage occurred in Greenwich and nearby houses.
Summit claims it provided compensation to other affected neighbors. However, Greenwich has continued accusing Summit of using power and influence to trouble them instead of providing compensation according to the earlier agreement.
