Land acquisition row hits works at Kathmandu-Terai Expressway

Kathmandu, Feb. 13: Land compensation dispute in the Lalitpur section of the Kathmandu-Terai Expressway has delayed the initial civil engineering works. 

About 70 per cent of the landowners in the Right of Way (RoW) of the expressway, from Zero Kilo, starting point of the road at Sano Khokana, to Makhkhu Beshi of Dakshinkali Municipality, have not accepted the compensation money from the government, claiming that the amount was much lower than the actual worth of their property. 

According to the Nepal Army, developer of the road project, the people are asking the government to review the compensation money set for the land acquisition. 

The NA said that it was waiting for the government’s decision on this, but the District Administration Office in Lalitpur has not yet given any decision.

At the same time, the locals have urged the NA to save the Shree Kali Temple, 1 km from Zero Kilo and Kudesh, an ancient settlement, and not to conduct any excavation works near the two religious and historic areas. 

“We are coordinating with the locals to preserve both the heritage sites. The NA conducted another survey in the areas and made an improvement in the alignment,” said Lieutenant Colonel D. K. Jha, Sector Commander of the Expressway project.   

The shortest road link that will connect the southern plains to the capital city will have 50 metre RoW, and 25 metre width on the 6-km long section in Lalitpur.  

A temporary bridge will be constructed at Chobhar to reach Zero Kilo from the Himal Cement Factory area until the outer ring road is constructed, said Ajit Shrestha, camp commander of the NA’s Makhkhubeshi Camp. 

As the toll plaza, camp and logistics will be constructed at Zero Kilo, the NA wants to start the initial works on the location at the earliest. 

The location has 39 ropanis of land, which was used as a military dropping zone in the past.

The NA will construct the road at this location, and altogether 17 km part will be constructed by the army while other sections will be tendered out to national and international construction companies.

The NA had opened the track of the 76.2 km long road about five years ago. 

After dilly-dallying of five years the government had handed over the project to the NA in August last year with a set time frame of four years. 

Published in The Rising Nepal, on 14 February 2018.