Land acquisition has emerged as one of the biggest problems for the government while implementing infrastructure development plans. Be it national priority road projects, railway development or extension of transmission lines, the problem is persisting, with local residents demanding compensation higher than the government estimation.
A progress report prepared by the National Planning Commission (NPC) on infrastructure projects based on the first four months (Mid-July to mid-November) of the current fiscal year has clearly stated that the failure to acquire land in time has been one of the major factors for the failure to achieve set targets.
Kathmandu Tarai Fast Track road, Mid-Hills Highway, railway project and North-South Corridor road projects all have faced land acquisition hurdles.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai admitted that land acquisition has become a ‘big problem’ for infrastructure projects. Addressing the 28th meeting of the National Development Problems Solution Committee on Sunday, he directed the ministries concerned to take the issue seriously and end the practice of setting different prices for the same land.
A district-level committee under the coordination of the Chief District Officer in each district is responsible for fixing the price of the land to be acquired. But officials said the committees fix the price at lower rate when they have to show the valuation to land revenue offices, but they increase the price 10 fold when the government needs to acquire the same land due to pressure from locals and leaders.
Chief Secretary Lila Mani Paudel said work on one of the transmission line projects has been affected due to the increased valuation of the land to be acquired. “Cost for acquiring land for any project has increased extremely,” said Paudel, adding it has been necessary for the government to adopt an international practice on acquiring land and to be ‘assertive’ so that projects move ahead smoothly.
The problem faced in Khokana, Lalitpur, is a case in point. The government was supposed to acquire land at Khokana a long time ago for the proposed 76-km Fast Track road that links the Capital with the Tarai. The Ministry of Physical Planning Works and Transport Management has already issued request for proposals to construct the highway under the build-operate-transfer (BOT).
However, the Physical Planning Ministry has still not been able to acquire the required land for the 8-km stretch falling in Khokana for higher compensation demand. The Physical Planning Ministry, failing to acquire the land, has now decided to reduce the width of the expressway at Khokana from the originally planned 100 metres to 50 metres.
Government officials said the work on Mechi-Mahakali Electirc cross-border railway link and the Western section of the Mid-Hill Highway has been moving at snail’s pace due to difficulties in acquiring land in time.
Last year, the government solved the land acquisition problem in Makawanpur for the Fast Track road after 18-month-long effort.
Apart from land acquisition problems, shortage of sufficient resources and explosives are other problems faced by national pride projects. The government has targeted to complete track opening of the Mid-Hills road within the current fiscal year. However, it has so far been able to open only 9km track as of mid-November, 2011, against the target of 30km.
As far as the Karnali Corridor road under the North-South road project is concerned, only 3km track has been opened in the first four months this fiscal.
As per the progress report of the NPC, Mid-Hills Highway and North South road projects have not received explosives as demanded for the track opening work. And, irrigation projects—Sikta, Rani Jamara and Babai—have faced resource crunch.
In the meeting, Finance Minister Barsha Man Pun assured that big projects would not face budget crunch. He asked the ministries to implement such projects effectively as the capital expenditure was just 15 percent in the first six months of this fiscal year. “It is not possible to see progress under such a low expenditure.”
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