A high court has paved the way for establishment of an industrial estate in Hetauda Sub-metropolitan City, as it has quashed a petition that sought halt in construction works at the site of the new complex.

A total of 22 people, who had illegally occupied land in the proposed site of the new industrial estate, had filed a petition at Hetauda High Court seeking termination of all construction activities. These people had occupied 2 kattha to 1 bigaha of land. When the Industrial District Management Limited (IDML), a state-owned company which oversees all industrial areas in the country, tried to evict them, they moved the court. Some of those who filed the petition were from the Orphan and Disabled Children Rehabilitation Centre.

The high court said it was not necessary to issue an order to stop construction works at the site as petitioners did not have compelling evidence to prove their case.

“The court’s decision will compel those who had illegally occupied land to back off. This will ease the process of building infrastructure necessary for the industrial estate,” said Bhushan Vaidya, manager of Hetauda Industrial Area Management Limited, which is overseeing works related to construction of the new industrial estate.

The government has allocated a budget of Rs1.5 million for construction of a building on the land that was illegally occupied. “We had not been able to start construction because of presence of illegal tenants,” said Vaidya.

“Also, Parsa National Park had barred us from building fences on the land assigned for construction of the industrial estate. It had also rounded up a worker who was building fences. Following the latest court decision, the national park has decided to let us proceed with our work.”

Hetauda Industrial Area Management Limited was planning to complete building fences around the land allocated for the industrial area within mid-December. Almost 90 percent of the work has been completed. “We will complete the remaining work soon,” said Vaidya.

The new industrial estate is being built in Mayurdhap and will spread on 210 bighas of land (approximately 142 hectares). It is being established as per the plan to set up one industrial area in each of the seven provinces.

The new industrial estate is ideal for manufacturing units, as it is not very far away from the highway and is expected to help in economic development of surrounding areas such as Churiyamai and Padam Pokhari. The site of the new industrial area is also not far away from the existing industrial estate.

Hetauda saw its first industrial estate in 1963. The estate, which spreads on 2,829 ropanis of land, was built with the support of the US government. More than 60 enterprises are currently operating in the estate, providing jobs to over 2,400 people.

The first industrial area in Nepal was established at Balaju in Kathmandu in 1960 through the support of the US government. Currently, 11 industrial estates are operating in the country. They are located in Balaju, Patan, Hetauda, Dharan, Nepalgunj, Pokhara, Butwal, Bhaktapur, Birendranagar, Gajendranarayan Singh (Rajbiraj) and Dhankuta. However, the industrial estate in Dhankuta has not come into operation till date.