The construction work of Chainpur Seti Power Project, which is seen as a game changer project of Sudurpaschim Province, has been stopped. Division Forest Office Bajhang has stopped the construction of the 210 megawatt capacity project being constructed by Nepal Electricity Authority without completing the government process.

The Division Forest Office sent a letter on June 26, saying that the construction work of the project is being done in violation of the Forest Act and Regulations and asked to stop it immediately.

In a letter written by Divisional Forest Officer Shambhu Prashad Tiwari, the sub-divisional forest office has been informed that 'the said illegal construction work has been asked to be submitted for action with the help of locals and police. At present, the construction of six access tunnels (audit tunnels) leading to the main tunnel of the project is underway in different places in the village of Danot.

The project is doing construction using the national forest area and during the said work, the forest  The Forest Office has said that the necessary procedures of Section 42 of Act 2076 and Rules 87 to 97 of Forest Regulations 2079 have not been completed.

'According to sub-rule (1) of rule 98 of the Forest Regulations, prior to the operation of a development project approved by the Government of Nepal in the national forest area, the relevant development project operator shall use the permit obtained for the operation of such project in accordance with the agreement made with the Department of Forestry and Land Conservation and As there is a clear provision that an application must be submitted to the Divisional Forest Office along with other documents and in sub-rule (2) of the same rule, if such an application is received, the Divisional Forest Officer will have to examine the same and issue permission to enter the national forest area for development projects. As the project is using the national forest area contrary to the existing laws and regulations without completing any such legal process, it is hereby informed that the work should be stopped immediately,' the letter said. In the said letter, it is mentioned that the work has been stopped until this process is done before, but the project has ignored the letter. 

project while answering the previous letter  Answering that permission has been received from Golbing Community Forest User Committee and Ratapani Community Forest User Committee to dig the road for the project in the community forest area, but as per the Forest Act, the land ownership of the National Forest remains with the Government of Nepal, so they will demand the use of the forest area from the organizations that do not have the right and according to the demand. It is mentioned in the letter written by the Division Forest Office that sending an irresponsible and illegal reply that the permission to use the forest area has been flouted the law.

 'We have taken this decision after we were repeatedly warned not to do illegal construction work,' Divisional Forest Officer Shambhuprashad Tiwari said, 'We have stopped it only to proceed with the legal process.' He said that action will be taken in the case of other projects constructed in the forest area without completing the legal process if information is received.

Since the Chainpur Seti hydropower project, the official process of land acquisition has already started last year and the work was stopped suddenly while the construction work was being carried out with the consent of the Digital Forest Office .

'We have 2080 years  In Kartik itself, we were able to advance the process for obtaining the forest area's project head, Anil Bhakta Shrestha, said, "A national priority project should not be stopped by consulting the district forest officer. There is a verbal agreement to complete the process and do the work. After the arrival of the new DFO, the work was stopped without any discussion with us.'

He said that not a single tree has been cut during the construction of the project so far and that the forest's letter to stop the project will delay the construction of the project. He said that the ongoing construction work has also been stopped.

"Because we wrote a letter not to help the army, the construction work on the private land has also been stopped," he said, "even though we have submitted the documents that the legal action of the forest has already started, we have not been able to understand why this has been done." He said that the project has not yet entered the stage of construction and said that the work being done now is part of the research. 

This semi-reservoir hydropower project, which aims to be completed within five years, is a project started by the Nepal Electricity Authority as a high priority. The reservoir of this project, which has been put forward by the authority as an ambitious project, will be constructed near the confluence of Setinadi and Ghatganga rivers in Kandagaon of Saipal Rural Municipality.