Butwal

Butwal is a sub-metropolitan city and economic hub in Lumbini Province in western Nepal, previously known as Khasyauli. It stands beside the Tinau River at the northern edge of the Terai plain below the Siwalik Hills, at the meeting point of the Mahendra Highway and the Siddhartha Highway, which link it to the Indian border at Sunauli and to Pokhara. It is one of the four cities of the Butwal-Tilottama-Bhairahawa-Devdaha urban agglomeration. Its name comes from Batauli Bazaar, the oldest residential part of town. In medieval times it was a trading point between hill and plain people, was later annexed by the Gorkha empire, and was the site of the Battle of Jitgadi Fort in the Anglo-Nepalese war. Butwal was declared a sub-metropolitan city on 2 December 2014 by combining Motipur and Semlar, and it is a fast-growing centre for health, education, trade and banking.