The compensation determination committee has fixed the compensation amount for land to be acquired by the Budhi Gandaki Hydroelectric Project in 13 VDCs of Dhading district.

A meeting of the panel, headed by chief district officer of Dhading Umesh Dhakal, held on Tuesday fixed the compensation amount based on Land Acquisition Act 1978.

The compensation amount ranges from Rs524,000 to Rs835,000 per ropani. The land that will be acquired by the project is spread across 13 VDCs in Dhading. The committee is planning to conduct a separate study to determine the compensation amount for the remaining two places—Khahare Bazaar and Aarughat.

Announcing the compensation amount, Laxmi Prasad Devkota, chairman of the Project Development Committee, said the land to be acquired by the project had been classified into five categories—paddy field, small farm land, land in market area, land adjoining a road and land near human settlements. Paddy fields and small farm lands have been further classed into four grades, with the compensation amount for the first grade being the highest.

The committee has offered Rs835,000 per ropani for land in market area and Rs804,000 per ropani for land adjoining a road. It will provide Rs773,000 per ropani for land near human settlements.

“Similarly, first grade paddy fields will get Rs741,000 per ropani while second, third and fourth grade fields will get Rs710,000, Rs679,000 and Rs648,000 respectively,” said Devkota.

“Owners of first grade small farm land will get Rs617,000 per ropnai and owners of second, third and fourth grades will get Rs586,000, Rs555,000 and Rs524,000 respectively,” he added.

On top of the compensation fixed by the committee, it is offering 15 percent extra to those who own less than 5 ropanis and 10 percent to those who own less than 10 ropanis of land.

The committee has also decided to request the government to offer a ropani of residential land and Rs1 million in cash to build a new house to each household displaced by the project.

“We are requesting the government to make this offer as we do not want any one to be completely displaced from the place where they have spent most of their lives,” said Devkota.

Moreover, it has recommended to the government to provide a 50 percent subsidy to locals to purchase shares in the project.

A notice will be published in national newspapers asking locals to contact the district administration office to claim the compensation amount for their land. “In the first phase, we will distribute compensation to landowners in Salang, Maidi and Khari VDCs,” said Devkota. “After that, we will gradually start distributing compensation to people in other VDCs.” 

Landowners in Dhading have been offered the same amount of compensation as in Gorkha. The committee had fixed the compensation amount for land to be acquired by the project in Gorkha last November. Gorkha locals, however, are yet to accept the deal.

The project needs to acquire around 58,000 ropanis of land in 27 VDCs in Gorkha and Dhading districts which will be inundated by the hydroelectric project. More than 8,000 households will be affected, according to the latest report by the project development committee.

The report states that the reservoir of the storage project will completely submerge 3,560 houses and the occupants will need to be resettled with proper compensation. Likewise, 4,557 households will be partially affected, and they will require appropriate compensation.