August 05, 2020
Kathmandu: Budhigandaki Hydropower Project has so far distributed almost Rs 34 billion in land compensation.
Though compensation for a majority of the land to be affected by the hydropower project has already been distributed, affected locals have been agitating at Gorkha’s Aarughat and Aarkhet, and Dhading’s Khahare bazaar demanding that the land affected by the project be repaired. As a result, the entire project development process has been affected due to the land compensation dispute which is yet to be resolved completely.
“The land compensation process is still ongoing and will be settled soon,” informed a source at the Ministry of Energy (MoE). As per the ministry, of the 58,153 ropanis of land that the project covers, the government had completed compensating for 47,439 ropanis of land by the end of the last fiscal year and the energy ministry plans to provide compensation for the remaining land within the next few months.
Officials at MoE said that the problem at present is the delay in finalising the construction modality of the project rather than the land compensation issue.
Though it has been long since the government decided to construct the 1,200-megawatt hydropower project through its own resources, the government has not been able to take any concrete decision on the project development front.
Source: The Himalayan Times
