Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track: Land acquisition work in Khokana to begin soon
KATHMANDU, MAR 15 -
The long-stalled work on land acquisition in Khokana, Lalitpur, for the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track road is likely to start soon. The government has intensified its preparations to publish a public notice within a month to acquire land and provide compensation to the land owners.
As per the government plan, the entire track opening of the 76-km Fast Track road has to be completed before mid-July this year. In Khokana, where 8km stretch of the express highway falls, the government requires to acquire 800-850 ropanies of private and public land. Earlier, the government failed to acquire land after the locals demand higher compensation.
Project officials are optimistic that track opening of the section will be completed within the targeted date. The Nepal Army which is assigned for the job recently completed track opening work from Chhalnakhel, Lalitpur, to Nijgadh, Bara. Kokhana is the starting point of the highway, while the road ends at Nijgadh.
Project Manager Rajendra Sharma said they were busy collecting information from the Survey Department and Land Revenue Office to publish a notice determining the price of land to be acquired. “After the notice, the Lalitpur District Administration Office will fix the compensation rate,” he said, adding as the project is on the government’s priority list, it will not face a budget crunch.
It is estimated that the government will spend around Rs 3 billion in land compensation in Khokana. As per government provision, a district-level committee under the coordination of the Chief District Officer is responsible for fixing the land price. Sharma said the actual budget requirement for land compensation would be known after the committee decides the price. With locals demanding higher compensation, the government, some three months ago, had decided to reduce the width of the expressway at Khokana from the originally planned 100 metres to 50 metres.
After the width reduction, the government will now have to acquire 800 ropanies. As per the original plan, the government had to acquire 1,600 ropanies. Officials at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport hope the land acquisition work will not face problem this time.
Due to land acquisition problem earlier, there had been slight change on the Khokana alignment of the road. The road will now pass along the banks of the Bagmati River avoiding Danuwar village, Lalitpur.
A ministry official said they were also mulling extending the bid submission deadline by one more month. Three contractors have applied for developing the fast track road under the build-operate-transfer model.
Last month, the ministry had given May 2 deadline to the contractors—Reliance Infrastructure, Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS) and Larsen and Toubro (L&T) Infrastructure Development Project.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
