Govt to realign Fast Track in Khokana

The government has changed the alignment of the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track at Khokana area of Lalitpur in an effort to reduce land acquisition cost. The change in plan includes a reduction in the width of the road by 50 percent to 50 meter.
"The Fast Track will now run along the Bagmati river bank instead of Danuwar village area," Rajendra Raj Sharma, a project manager of the Fast Track, told Republica on Tuesday.
The government has decided to acquire just 800 ropanis of land in the Khokana area to avoid high cost of land acquisition. "The initial plan was to acquire a total of 1,600 ropanis of land within the 8km area of Khokana," Sharma said.
Land acquisition in the Khokana area has been a major hurdle for developing the Fast Track that will connect Kathmandu and Nijghad by a 76km road. "The new alignment of the Fast Track in the Khokana area is a ministerial level decision," Sharma added.
As per the calculation of the government, it will cost more than Rs 5 billion to acquire 800 ropanis of land in the Khokana area. "The actual figure will come out only after a land evaluation committee decides on how much to pay for acquiring the land," Tulasi Prasad Sitaula, secretary at the Ministry of Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management (MoPPWTM) told Republica.
The progress report of the government for the first four months of the fiscal year 2012/13 has categorically identified land acquisition as a major problem for the project development. As of now, 63km track opening of the Fast Track has been completed.
Additionally, the government has yet to conduct environment impact assessment (EIA) of the 8.5km area in Khokana. The quarterly report that was presented in the meeting of National Development Problem Resolution Committee does not include the progress report of the Fast Track.
Meanwhile, the government has short-listed three Indian firms for developing the Fast Track, namely, Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Tourbo (L&T) and Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services (IL&FS). As per the cost estimation of Asian Development Bank (ADB) in 2008, the project is estimated to cost Rs 67 billion.
A total of nine companies, including Nepali, South Korean and Indian firms had shown interest in the construction of the project.