Land acqusition for proposed industrial park in final stage

Jhapa, October 25

Land acquisition for the proposed industrial park in Damak of Jhapa has reached final stage.

The proposed site for the construction of the industrial park under the One Belt One Road project of the Chinese government is some 12 km south of the East-West highway. While some 942 bigahas of the total 2,200 bigahas of land where the park will be constructed has already come under Industrial Estate Management Limited, the process of acquiring the remaining land is in the last phase.

Earlier, a notice had been published for the first time for the land owners to get their land registered for the acquisition process in February this year. “So far we’ve received applications for the acquisition of 410 bigahas of land. Preparations are on to provide compensation to landowners after Dashain,” said sources at the IEML.

Meanwhile, the news of the construction of an industrial park here has elated the locals. “We’ve heard of the preparations to build the park. Once it is built, we will definitely be benefited from it,” said Midul Dhimal of Damak Municipality-10.

Damak Municipality said roads linking the industrial park are being black-topped and construction of necessary bridges and culverts are under way. The municipality is also facilitating the land acquisition process.

Construction of a bridge linking Damak Municipality with Kamal Rural Municipality and Gauradaha Municipality has also started. According to contractor of the bridge, Sharma Anak JV, construction work had started from the third week of March. The estimated construction cost of the bridge which will be 300 metres long  and 10.5 metres wide is around Rs 360 million.

According to Damak Municipality Ward-10 chair Bodharaj Neupane, a committee has been formed at the local level to facilitate land acquisition. “As the process of distributing compensation is about to begin, it has at least removed our doubts that the project would ever materialise,” he stated.

A team from China had conducted a field study at the proposed site of the park about nine months ago. Of the four blocks, the team had observed the first block. As per the sources with Damak Municipality, MoU has been inked for the construction of the park. Further, final preparations are said to be under way for preparing the detailed project report.The park is expected to generate employment for over one million people.