• Despite landowners’criticism, the A fixing committee stuck to its guns

Rautahat, December 24

The government has started providing compensation to landowners whose land plots were acquired for the laying of railway track on the Nijgadh-Bardibas section of the Mechi-Mahakali Electric Railway Project.

Rail and Metro Development Project’s Simara-Bardibas Section Site Office Bardibas has, thus, started providing compensation from today to landowners, who have seen the acquisition process of their land completed by now.

According to District Administration Office, landowners of 330 plots whose ownership has been transferred to the Railway Department have been told to receive compensation.

Earlier, the government, invoking Land Acquisition Act 2034, had put out a 35-day notice back in March notifying its intention to acquire necessary land for the Bardibas-Nijgadh section of the Mechi-Mahakali Electric Railway.

As per the notice, the Railway Department carried out a survey, following which a compensation fixing committee led by the chief district officer had fixed the compensation of 330 plots of land to be acquired for the project.

“Though the landowners had filed a complaint with the department, calling the compensation rate nominal, the committee, following a discussion over the complaint, decided to uphold the previous compensation rate,” said DAO Rautahat Administration Section first class non-gazetted officer Ram Naresh Sah.

Meanwhile, the Railway Department has intensified work to construct the track of the Bagmati-Dhansar section.

Though the work has faced some resistance at Betauna in Chandrapur Municipality-8 owing to a compensation-related dispute, it is going on unhampered from the western side.

According to Engineer Kiran Karki, work to construct the railway track is under way by dividing the entire length of the 1003.8km track of the project in 10 packages.

“We’ve sought 1,074 billion rupees from the finance ministry for track construction as per the evaluation,” said Karki.

In Rautahat, contracts have been signed in five packages.

According to Division Engineer Dev Kumar Tamang, the proposed railway will have a speed of 200 km per hour and will occupy 25 metres either side from the track.

As per the Railway Department, work related to construction of railway stations, laying of the railway track and provisions of drinking water and electricity will be finished this fiscal.

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