Oct 24, 2016- The compensation determination committee of the much-awaited 900MW Arun III Hydroelectric Project has fixed compensation amount for private land to be acquired by the project.
The District Administration Office (DAO) of Sankhuwasabha has published a 35-day notice asking land owners to visit the office with applications to claim the compensation amount for their land, which has to be handed over to the project developer.
The DAO has identified 49 hectares of private land for the project at Diding, Yaphu, Num and Pathivara VDCs. These land parcels have been divided into five categories: Sloping land, small farm land, large-cardamom field, paddy field and residential land. Compensation amount for different types of land varies accordingly.
The office has offered Rs825,000 per ropani in compensation for sloping land and Rs907,500 per ropani for small farm land. It will provide Rs1.04 million per ropani for large-cardamom field and Rs1.2 million per ropani for paddy field.
If the land touches North-South Koshi Highway, the compensation amount goes up by 20 percent. Similarly, those who own large-cardamom fields will get an additional Rs100,000 in compensation for per ropani of land for three consecutive years as opportunity cost.
According to the notice published by the district administration office, compensation amount for residential land is higher than other land parcels.
The compensation determination committee has considered 200sqm of residential land as a parcel of land, and has offered Rs1.1 million in compensation. The rate is slightly higher for residential land at Faxinda of Num, where the office has offered Rs1.23 million in compensation for a parcel of 200sqm of land. There are 391 private land parcels, including 112 in Diding, 82 in Yaphu, 147 in Num and 50 in Pathivara VDCs, that need to be acquired.
The latest development has come as a respite for SJVN Arun III, the project developer, as land acquisition was one of the preconditions for the financial closure. According to the Project Development Agreement signed between the government and the developer, the company has to complete financial closure by November 2016.
The project developer will also acquire houses, cowsheds, huts and plants on those land plots and the district administration office has fixed the compensation amount for all the assets on the land.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
