Chinari — Nepal's Own Address Map
Chinari gives every street, house, and business in Nepal a digital identity. Search any registered shop or home, get turn-by-turn directions to its gate, and share an exact address as a link — things that were never possible before, because most of Nepal's streets had no names and its houses had no numbers. Every entry on this map is verified by a real person before it goes live.
Why this project started
In most of Nepal, an address is a story: "beside the peepal tree, two houses past the pharmacy." Deliveries get lost, ambulances ask directions, and businesses stay invisible online. Global map providers have not solved this — their maps of our towns are missing streets, and house numbers simply don't exist. Chinari was started to fix that from the ground up: a Nepali-built registry where streets get names, houses get metric numbers (odd on the left, even on the right, restarting in each ward), and every record is checked by an admin before the public sees it.
What you can do on this map
- Search any registered business, place, street, or house number — from anywhere in Nepal.
- Directions — tap any result or house circle and get a route with distance and time.
- Share an exact address — every registered house has a link that opens the map right at its door.
- Browse in Nepali or English — one tap switches every name and label.
Volunteer contribution — map your own neighbourhood
Chinari is built by people who know their places best: locals. Anyone can volunteer to register the streets, houses, and businesses of their own neighbourhood. You don't need any technical skill — if you can use a map on your phone, you can contribute.
How it works
- Ask for a contributor account — email [email protected] with your name, address (ward), and phone number.
- The admin registers you as a contributor and gives you a login. Your work is credited to you by name, permanently.
- Log in — the map opens right at your home ward, ready to work.
- Everything you add is marked pending first. The admin reviews and approves it, and only then does it appear on the public map. That is how the map stays trustworthy.
① Add a road / street
- Open Roads → Add Road. Use the area filter (Province → District → Local Level → Ward) and press Filter to jump to your area.
- Pick the road type — Marga for a normal connecting lane (the default), Galli for a dead-end alley, Ghumti for a winding lane.
- Click along the road on the map to trace it. Points snap to the road automatically; drag any dot to adjust; use the satellite button to see real rooftops.
- Leave the name empty — the system assigns a code like "A Marga" automatically. Real names are added later when confirmed locally.
- Save — and the form stays put so you can trace the next road immediately.
② Add houses (and how to add many at once)
- Open Houses → Add House, filter to your ward.
- For one house: click the center of the building. The ward, nearest street, and the correct metric house number are detected automatically — just check and save.
- For a whole street: switch Mode to Add Multiple, then click house after house along the street. Each pin gets its number instantly; press Undo Last if you misclick, then submit them all with one button.
③ Add a place / business
- Open Places → Add Place, filter to the ward.
- Zoom in and click the green house number the business sits in — its full address fills itself.
- Enter the business name (English and Nepali), pick a category, and optionally its website or Facebook page.
- Several shops in one building? Press + Add More and list them all — one submission covers the whole building.
④ Add rivers, lakes, ponds, bridges
- Open Rivers → Add Entry.
- A river is traced along its course like a road. A lake, pond, bridge, or glacier needs just one click at its center.
What businesses gain
- Be found — customers anywhere in Nepal can search your shop by name, in Nepali or English, and see exactly where you are.
- Be reached — one tap gives directions to your door, not to a vague bazaar. Deliveries stop calling for directions.
- Be linked — your listing carries your website or Facebook page, and your address becomes a shareable link for visiting cards and ads.
- Be early — registration is free for businesses in mapped areas. As Chinari grows into every district, early businesses become the landmarks others are measured against.
Ready to put your neighbourhood on the map?
Write to [email protected] — your streets are waiting for their names.
Data sources & licence
Chinari App registry data — the streets, house numbers, places and water we
record — is published under the Open Database Licence (ODbL 1.0). You are free
to copy, adapt and use it, including commercially, provided you credit Chinari App
and release any derived database under the same licence.
We build on the work of others, and credit it:
Administrative boundaries — Survey Department of Nepal, via Open Knowledge
Nepal (CC BY 4.0). National outline — geoBoundaries (CC BY 4.0).
Highway, feeder road and major river geometry — © OpenStreetMap contributors
(ODbL). Satellite imagery — © Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics.
Shaded relief — Natural Earth (public domain).
Local streets, house numbers, and every place recorded by a contributor are our
own survey work.
Contributions. By adding data you agree that it may be published as part of
this registry under the licence above, and that your contribution is your own work
— not copied from a map or service whose terms forbid it. Google Maps and Google
Earth are never acceptable sources.