The government has to compensate for the land to be acquired at the existing market price, if it really wants to create an investment-friendly environment

The government seems to be serious about expediting major development projects without any delay, simplifying the legal and policy-level hurdles and problems confronting land acquisition. Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has given special emphasis on generating sufficient electricity either through water resources or other means of renewable sources on the pipelines and monorail project in the Kathmandu Valley. As the chairman of the Investment Board Nepal (IBN), PM Oli directed on Sunday the IBN officials to oversee the implementation of the monorail project in the capital to ease the traffic problem; forward a proposal on the extension of shares to the locals to be affected by the proposed 900 MW Upper Karnali Hydroelectric Project to the cabinet; speed up the signing of the Joint Development Agreement of the reservoir-based 750 MW West Seti Hydroelectric Project being developed jointly by a subsidiary of China’s Three Gorges and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) at the earliest and issue a deadline to the Gurkha’s UK to submit a detailed proposal on generating 3000 MW of energy through windmills within three months. PM Oli has also asked the IBN officials to come up with a concrete proposal about the investment on the proposed 650 MW Tamakoshi-3 Hydroelectric Project abandoned by Norway’s Statkraft, citing lack of an investment environment and necessary regulatory framework.

The government aims to generate double the energy generated so far over the past 105 years. Currently, Nepal has the installed capacity of 762 MW of energy from various run-of-river type hydroelectric projects that generate only half of the installed capacity during the dry season. NEA is going to buy about 350 MW of energy from India during the dry season to meet domestic demand. If no concrete measures are taken Nepal will not be able to overcome the energy crisis for many years to come. The government needs to generate electricity using abundant renewable resources such as wind and solar freely available across the country.

In order to overcome the legal and other policy-level hurdles, the PM has directed the IBN officials to come up with a proposal to the cabinet on simplifying the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) studies that take at least three years to complete and to go through the bureaucratic processing and problems seen in land acquisition for project development. The government wants to complete the EIA studies within three months so that the project can be completed within the deadline. It is mandatory to conduct the EIA for any electricity project bigger than one MW. Besides the problem in acquiring land for the development projects private developers also confront a number of bureaucratic hassles to get official clearance from over a dozen government agencies that lack coordination with one another. The government rate of compensation for land acquired is very low compared to the market price. This is the major reason why the locals stand against any development project to be built in their vicinity. The government, therefore, has to compensate for the land to be acquired at the existing market price, if it really wants to create an investment-friendly environment for any development project.

Give priority

The devastating earthquakes of April 25 and May 12 caused damage to schools, particularly those in districts that were hit the hardest by them. As it is difficult to conduct classes under the open sky without shelter, it is high time the school buildings that were destroyed were reconstructed. This is not an easy task as many of the multi-storied school buildings damaged can be demolished only manually. As such, it will take more time to rebuild the school buildings. International help is also solicited in the campaign to build the schools. Rightly priority has been given to the reconstruction of the schools. Although data should have been collected from January 2 to be completed by January 10 on the extent of the damage caused to the school buildings, this was not done.

Still the authorities concerned for the delay of the reconstruction works should be blamed for not doing them on time. Details have been collected in 31 districts affected by the quakes including the 14 most affected districts and priority in the reconstruction works would be given to the hardest hit districts.