This reality came to the surface when Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW) requested MoF to arrange an additional budget of Rs 590 million for acquiring land for the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track Roads.[break]
“As Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track was one of the 11 projects to which Prime Minister Dr Baburam Bhattarai in his Immediate Action Plan on Economic Growth and Prosperity committed to arrange fund anyhow to speed up its implementation, we were optimistic MoF would respond to our call positively,” said a source.
However, MoF has formally notified the MoPPW that it cannot arrange the requested budget. The message that MoF passed on the MoPPW was clearly not what it said in its own version of action plan that it formulated to back PM´s Immediate Action Plan.
“We would release the fund to the projects of national price within two days of request for fund,” MoF has said in the document which has been distributed widely to the public.
Following such response from the MoF, MoPPW is preparing to use some Rs 500 million allocated for other relatively bigger projects for financing the land acquisition and pave way for the track opening of Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track Road.
“We have made arrangement to transfer the budget allocated for other centrally executed big projects to ensure unhindered implementation of the multi-billion rupee fast-track project,” confirmed Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the MoPPW. Sitaula said he has already instructed the Finance Division of the MoPPW to arrange around Rs 500 million from other national projects.
The MoPPW took the step after fast track project faced budget crunch to distribute compensation to the owners of acquired land in Makawanpur and Kathmandu. MoPPW has estimated that it needs at least around Rs 1 billion to acquire the land in Makawanpur and Kathmandu districts, where distribution of compensation has begun just recently.
Though the government in the budget for the current fiscal year allocated Rs 680 million for the fast track project, only Rs 350 million has been earmarked for the purpose of land acquisition, while the rest has been set aside for track opening and administrative works.
Saroj Man Shrestha, chief of the project said the district administration offices in Kathmandu and Makawanpur entrusted to pay compensation have distributed Rs 155 million including Rs 140 million in Makawanpur over the last 10 days of land acquisition drive.
The government has fixed compensation between Rs 110,000 and Rs 280,000 per kattha of land depending on the location in Makawanpur, whereas the same is between Rs 32,000 and Rs 100,000 per anna in Kathmandu.
The government needs to acquire 1,409 kattha in Makawanpur and 275 ropanies in Kathmandu to implement the project. Similarly, it needs to acquire around 2,200 ropanies of land in Lalitpur district to complete the track of the proposed 76-km expressway.
Although the government is yet to ascertain the compensation amount for landowners in Lalitpur, MoPPW estimates it will need a total of around Rs 4.5 billion to pay compensation and complete the land acquisition process.
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