Rautahat, March 12

Construction of the East-West Electric Railway Project has been halted for the past four months due to a dispute related to compensation for land plots to be acquired for the project.

Work on the national glory project’s Bardibas-Nijgadh section has thus been put on hold after locals of Batauna in Chandrapur Municipality, Rautahat, started an agitation, expressing their dissatisfaction at the government-fixed compensation for their plots to be acquired by the railway project.

The agitation followed after a meeting of land compensation determination committee, led by then Rautahat Chief District Officer Kiran Thapa, proposed compensation

ranging from 8 to 16 lakh rupees per kattha by categorising land into two classes on the basis of their location on July 28 last year.

Dissatisfied at the proposed compensation rate, the locals had corresponded with the home ministry, Railway Department, physical infrastructure and transportation ministry and other authorities concerned, seeking a re-evaluation of the land to be acquired.

Though the committee re-evaluated the compensation rate recently, the same has, however, failed to convince locals to abandon their protest.

As per the latest evaluation, compensation between 4 and 11 lakh has been proposed for each kattha land by dividing land into four categories. The committee has also recommended the recent compensation rate to the Railway Department.