Tangiya locals fear displacement by Nijgadh international airport project

Bara, July 1

The government’s preparations to acquire land for construction of the Nijgadh international airport in Jitpur of Simara Sub-metropolitan City has left the people residing in Tangiya settlement in the state of panic.

The project will displace 1,476 households of the settlement. It is said that the government had provided shelters to the flood victims from different places of the country in Tangiya in 1975. The population of the settlement is around 7,380.

Tangiya Settlement Stakeholder Committee Chairman Ramesh Sapkota said they were deprived of health, communication and electricity facilities. “The locals have to go to the nearby town to talk to their relatives on telephone,” he added. Sapkota said the locals had to walk hours to reach health facilities.

The electricity service has yet to reach Tangiya although the report has been made public citing that the electricity service has already reached Bara. Some well-off have installed the solar lights but almost all villagers light kerosene lamps.

The locals are very angry and irritated with the political parties as they have not taken any initiatives to resolve the problems of Tangiya. The Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML, the Rastriya Prajatantra Party among others used the Tangiya settlement as the vote bank. The settlement is fed up with the political parties as they did not heed their problems after the elections.

The government has started the process of acquiring 24 hectares land of Tangiya settlement for the project.