Railway building snags on compensation row
BIRATNAGAR, DEC 19 -
Construction work on the Bathnaha-Katahari railway has screeched to a halt after a dispute arose over compensation to landowners.
The cross-border railway , which will connect Jogbani in India with Biratnagar in Nepal, is being built with the assistance of the Indian government.
According to Indian media reports, the compensation row involves a 2.5-km stretch of the railway ’s 5-km length which lies in India. The total length of the track is 18.1 km, and 13.1 km of it falls in Nepal.
The railway is being built as per an agreement reached between Nepal and India to build five cross-border rail links. The Indian government is investing IRs 2.80 billion on the Bathnaha-Katahari railway .
Half of the 5 km of track in India has been completed as the land is owned by Indian Railways. Work on the remaining half has stopped as the land on which the track will be laid is privately owned, and the Indian Railway Ministry and the Bihar government have not been able to agree on the compensation to be paid, according to a report in the Bagalpur edition of Hindustan Times.
Media reports said that the details of the land evaluation submitted to the Bihar government to acquire the land was not satisfactory.
As for railway work on the Nepal side, the government completed land acquisition last year and made 119 bighas of land available to the contractor Indian Railway Construction International (IRCON).
The civil works regarding the first phase of track opening, earthwork, bridge and culvert construction have reached the final stage.
The government spent Rs 630 million as compensation for 119 bighas of land. As per the agreement reached with India, the Nepal government is responsible for making available the required land for the cross-border railway link.
Calcutta-based Tatiya Construction, a contractor hired by IRCON for IRs 400 million, is at the final stage of completing the first phase work of the earthwork, track opening and culvert construction from the Dushgaja area, according to the Railway and Metro Development Project, Jogbani-Biratnagar section.
The track work will require around 8 million cubic feet of soil. The railway office said that the railway track would be 3 to 5 metres higher than the ground level.
The agreement with India to construct five broad gauge railway links was reached during the first visit of President Ram Baran Yadav to India. Work on the other four India-Nepal links — Jaynagar-Bardibas, Nautanwa-Bhairahawa, Rupaidiha-Nepalgunj and New Jalpaiguri-Kakkarbhitta — is underway.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
