The District Administration Office (DAO) recently published notice on acquisition of land needed for the construction of buildings and other infrastructures. [break]
Khum Prasad Subedi, chief of Urban and Building Division (UBD), said the office would soon acquire 91 bighas of land in Sai Gaun, Jayaspur and Paraspur to develop the joint customs infrastructure.
The new infrastructure, which officials say will greatly facilitate trade by bringing in quarantine and all necessary services within an area, will be located some 4 kilometers west of the present customs office at Jamunaha.
RITES India - an Indian firm - will develop the project which will be financed by the Indian government. UBD needs to acquire and pool the required land stretch on the Nepali side of the border.
UBD officials said the government has already allocated Rs 60 million for compensating the landowners. “We will pay compensation based on our valuation of the property,” Subedi said.
Nepal and India had mooted the concept of integrated customs terminal on both the sides of the border in 2004 in order to control growing cross-border smuggling and revenue evasion.
Because the terminals will support the operations of railway-based cargos, Nepali and Indian governments are hopeful that the new infrastructure and logistics would give a new impetus to bilateral trade.
Along with Nepalgunj-Rupediya, the two countries have also agreed to develop similar integrated customs terminals in Bhairahawa-Sunauli, Birgunj-Raxaul and Biratnagar-Jogbani. The Indian government has agreed in principle to invest about Rs 3 billion for the development of these projects.
Once the Nepali government completes the acquisition process, it will handover the stipulated land to RITES India to develop the project.
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