But the landowners are not satisfied with the revaluation recommended by the local administration, and have been preventing work from being done at the construction site for the past four months for not being given compensation according to their demand.

The agitating farmers have also formed a struggle committee which is not allowing the contractor to enter the village.

The farmers launched the protest demanding that the revaluation be done on the basis of the land and irrigation channel. The revaluation taking into account the road and irrigation channel was done after a team led by Chief District Officer Basudev Ghimire and including lawmakers visited the site a week ago.

Ghimire said that the revaluation decision was sent to the department after valuing the land on the basis of the old road and irrigation channel. “We have to try to solve this longstanding issue and have also sent a letter to the department,” he said. The decision was taken with the landowners' interest in mind, he said, and added that the dispute should come to an end now.

Ghimire, who is also the coordinator of the compensation determination committee, said that the land that would be taken over by the railway was valued at Rs1.1 million per kattha for land with road access, and Rs800,000 per kattha for land with no road access.

The compensation amount for land having irrigation facility has been fixed at Rs500,000 per kattha while the compensation for land without irrigation has been fixed at Rs400,000 per kattha.

Claiming that the compensation amount offered by the previous committee was too small, the farmers had pleaded with the Railways Department, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation, Survey Department and municipality through the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Last August, the struggle committee had requested Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa for a revaluation as the compensation amount was inadequate. But they have not heard anything from the ministry so far.

The compensation determination committee fixed the compensation amount for the land marked for the construction of the Bardibas-Nijgadh section of the rail line on July 28 last year.

The committee decided to fix the compensation amount in the Gaur area at Rs1.3 million per kattha for land connected by road, Rs800,000 per kattha for land connected to the Chadi River, and Rs600,000 per kattha for adjacent lands. The compensation for lands not connected by road has been fixed at Rs300,000 per kattha.

The farmers became aggressive after the committee decided to pay Rs300,000 per kattha for land without road access. The new valuation has been done taking into account road access and irrigation facilities.

Prahlad Poudel, coordinator of the struggle committee, said that the valuation committee has repeated the mistake which is not acceptable to them. The protest is going on, he said.

“The compensation amount for land connected by road might be correct, but the payment for land having irrigation facility is not acceptable,” he said. “The previous decision needs to be corrected. The valuation committee has decided on the basis of a majority vote.”

Construction work on the railway in the Bitauna area has been halted from mid-October following protests by locals that the land value fixed by the committee was much lower than the going rate.

A technical team was formed to resolve the compensation issue, following which locals allowed the contractor to do a survey. Coordinator of the struggle committee Poudel said that the land valuation done on the basis of road connection and irrigation facility was wrong.

Locals mounted a protest on the railway track after the contractor started work before resolving the compensation issue, attracting the attention of the local administration.

The length of the electrical railway will be 945 km, the Railways Department said.