Kavre, September 12

Around 2,000 houses are set to be demolished along the Araniko Highway from Kavre’s border point Sanga to Dolalghat’s Bandeu.

After the Division Road Office, Bhaktapur issued a directive to the District Land Revenue Office and Land Survey Office in Kavre to demolish structures built within 25m from the centre of the road, residents on the roadside have been terrified.

With the government’s plan to expand the stretch from Bhaktapur’s Suryabinayak to Dhulikhel, Division Road Office had written to the Land Revenue Office and Land Survey Office to survey the Araniko Highway for expansion and do the needful to clear illegal structures.

Chief of the Kavre Land Revenue Office, Ghanshyam Upadhyay, said his office and the Office of Land Survey had already started the process of acquiring 25m land on either side of the road for expansion purpose. Upadhayaya informed that his office had also directed the locals to stop buying and selling of land.

On November 5, 2014, the government had directed the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport to prepare a work plan for acquiring land for road expansion. After that the Division Road Office had proposed acquiring 25m land on either side of the road.

In May 2013, after the Division Road Office published a public notice regarding road expansion, house owners from Banepa and Panchkhal had formed separate committees to protest the decision.

In 1974, the government had amended the Road Act introducing a new clause, which stated the government should pay compensation to such house owners. The Apex Court upheld the provision in 1974. But the government requires resi     dents to leave 25m land on each side of the road.

Dhruba Nepal, legal advisor, Concern Committee, said the government should pay compensation to house owners if their houses are to be demolished for road expansion.