The government has started distributing compensation for land that is being acquired to widen the 1.1-km road connecting the integrated check post (ICP) and Sirsiya Dry Port in Birgunj.
The government has started distributing compensation for land that is being acquired to widen the 1.1-km road connecting the integrated check post (ICP) and Sirsiya Dry Port in Birgunj.
According to Ashok Kumar Ray Yadav, engineer of the Birgunj-Pathlaiya Road Office which is overseeing the project, landowners have initiated the process of claiming compensation for their property.
“The District Administration Office (DAO) Parsa has received applications from 17 landowners, and they will start receiving compensation for their plots from Friday after their title is transferred to the Department of Roads (DoR),” said Yadav. The remaining 250 landowners are in the process of filing applications at the department.
The Finance Ministry released Rs900 million several weeks ago to issue compensation payments, according to Yadav.
“The compensation rate has been fixed at Rs6.16 million per kattha,” he said. “The DoR will be acquiring 25 metres of land on either side of the road from the centre line.” This means the department will be acquiring 5.5 bighas of land from 267 landowners to widen the road. “We will pay compensation for the land only, not the temporary structures built on it,” Yadav said. As the ICP is slated to come into operation soon, the government has moved to construct a wider road between the check post and the dry port. After the ICP opens, the Birgunj Customs Department will shift here from where all customs clearance tasks will be performed.
Currently, around 1,000 cargo vehicles are cleared through Birgunj Customs. All these vehicles will have to pass over this road to the ICP when it comes into operation. The road is being widened in a move to prevent massive traffic jams from happening.
Local industrialists and business people have been demanding that the road be upgraded before the ICP is opened. Pappu Construction and Lumbini Construction have been appointed as contractors for the road widening project.
Nepal and India had reached an agreement in 2005 to build ICPs at border points of Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj. But so far only one ICP has been built on border point in Birgunj. According to an initial agreement, the Indian government would build the entire infrastructure of ICPs and hand them over to the government of Nepal.
Once ICPs come into operation, a number of services related customs clearance and immigration would be provided through a single roof. The ICPs will also house warehouse, parking yard, office building, security yard, litigation shed, quarantine post and check post.
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