Hetauda

Hetauda is a small town and municipality and seat of Makwanpur District in the Narayani Zone of southern Nepal. At the time of the 1991 Nepal census it had a population of 53,836 people living in 10,420 individual households.


It is 132 km from the capital Kathmandu via the old Tribhuvan Highway. There are now two alternate roads that are less than 80 kms. They are, however, not black topped yet. The city is enclosed by three rivers, the Rapti to the west, the Samari to the north and the Karra to the south. It is one the important industrial regions of Nepal. The settlement started due to its location at Tribhuvan Highway, and later was the meeting point of another major national highway - East-West Highway.





Physiography


Hetauda is considered one of the cleanest and greenest cities in Nepal, although there is no official data to support this claim. Due to its geographical features and its climate, it has been a popular choice for people migrating from the northern hilly regions to the south. Hetauda is situated in a unique geographical structure called doon, which means that it has a valley like geography. It is surrounded by hills: the Mahabharata range in the north and the Siwalik range in the south. The rivers Rapti, Samari, and Karra run through this area and flow southwest to meet Narayani, one of the bigger and popular rivers in the nation.


It is an hour's drive from the Nepalese border city of Birgunj, which is adjacent to its Indian counterpart, Raxaul. Both the existing highways to the capital city Kathmandu - Tribhuwan Highway and the East-West Highway, aka Mahendra Highway that trails the length of the nation - traverse through this city. With so many entry and exit points leading in and out of this town, Hetauda is set to grow into a commercial powerhouse if only the country realized its potential.


Hetauda is also known for its industries. Hetauda Industrial District (HID) is the biggest among the industrial districts in the nation. However, due to recent political events in the past ten years and present, HID is shrinking year after year. Industries have either moved to other countries or just shut down. Not only it houses some of the biggest industries in the nation, but also shelters the cottage and medium scale industries.

Hetauda is mostly a working-class residential town, and therefore a sizable portion of the population here are either employed by the industries or the government. Besides the industrial and governmental employment, individual entrepreneurship is another source of livelihood for the population which mostly tends to favor investment into transportation sector. Trucking is thus a popular business proposition as majority of goods plying to Kathmandu goes through this city. Recently, passenger service plying to Kathmandu using Indian Tata "Sumo" SUV's has taken hold in the city.


Among the big industries, Hetauda boasts of a cement factory whose production is aided by the ample supply of limestone that come from the northern Hills that form the base of the Mahabharata range. This limestone is blasted off of the quarry with the use of dynamites and then transported to the factory's production unit, which is situated 11 kilometres south across the town. The rope-way that was constructed to transport the raw materials from the quarry to the factory has stopped functioning due to lack of care and maintenance.


Among the popular attractions of Hetauda is the unique Martyr Memorial Park that was constructed to honor the martyrs of Nepal, including the ones who lost their lives since the time of British colonial wars to the ones who overthrew the autocratic Panchayat system in 1989. The Park has become a tourist spot since its completion in 1994. The main attraction of the park are the sculptures of these martyrs that are sculpted on one big boulder. The sculpting of the faces was accomplished by the student volunteers of Nepal Lalit Campus.


Similarly, Makwanpur Gadhi is another site east of the city, a fort of historic importance dating back to the unification process of Nepal. Prithvi Narayan Shah, the king that led the unification of the country into a greater Nepal, was married to the princess of Makawanpur whose father was a king of the Sen dynasty that ruled Makawanpur. Historians observe that this marriage, in fact, was a political strategy by King Prithvi Narayan Shah, who saw the strategic benefit of an alliance with Makwanpur to encircle Kathmandu Valley.