Kathmandu Post

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Ring road in Biratnagar still a mirage

BIRATNAGAR, JAN 17 - Six years after the decision to construct a 42-kilometer ring road, Biratnagar’s dream of a better transportation system remains unfulfilled because of lack of fund. The project was initially estimated to cost a sum of 820 million rupees. Ironically, the Departments of Roads has not received more than four million rupees till date. On top of that, question of compensating the landowners, which would cost over one billion rupees, remains unanswered.
The proposed ring road was designed to have a width of 50 metres, 7.5 metres of which would have bitumen black top. The alignment of the ring road was designed to pass through 12 wards of Biratnagar Sub-metropolitan City and 8 VDCs of Morang district including Kathari, Jhorahat, Bhathinach, Bhaudaha, Hattimuda and Tankisinbari VDCs. However the work could not proceed further than the earth filling of a section along a length of 10 kilometres.
According to Jamuna Bahadur Shrestha, chief of No 3 divisional office of the Department of Roads, the proposed ring road can not be materialised unless donor agencies are involved.
"Moreover, the project cannot proceed further unless the government pays compensation to the landowners," says Shrestha. Twenty-nine families are likely to face the fate of squatters once their lands are used in the construction. However, the government has no plan to rehabilitate them or compensate them in.
An estimated area of 200 hectares of land is expected to be used for the construction of the ring road. Mayor Pralhad Prasad Saha stresses that the ring road should be constructed at any cost. He further opines that the development budget has been diverted elsewhere because of the Maoist insurgency.Posted on: 2004-01-18 02:28

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