KATHMANDU: GMR, the developer of Upper Karnali Hydropower Project, has said that land acquisition process for the project has been stalled due to lack of authentic documents of 12 hectares of land in Achham district.

Out of 322 hectares of land (273 hectares of government land and 49 hectares of private land) needed for the project, the company has acquired 7.5 hectares of private land so far, while it is in the process of acquiring additional 29.5 hectares.

KK Sharma, project construction head of Upper Karnali project, informed that the company is also facing problems in acquiring some parts of the government-owned community forests of Achham and Dailekh districts. “We hope these issues will be resolved soon,” he said. It is to be noted that in the 10 years of Maoist insurgency period, the insurgents had destroyed land ownership certificates in various districts