The Road Division Office, Hetauda, has launched a campaign to remove structures encroaching on the main road area of Birgunj along the Tribhuvan Highway since Friday afternoon.
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The campaign to use a dozer on houses and structures within the road boundary on the main road in Birgunj, which was halted after locals obstructed it, has not progressed. A meeting of the stakeholders is scheduled to be held on Saturday to resolve the dispute.
The Road Division Office, Hetauda, had started a campaign to remove structures encroaching on the road boundary on the main road in Birgunj along the Tribhuvan Highway from around 1 pm on Friday. After removing structures up to the agricultural implement factory, the campaign was halted at around 5 pm after locals in the Bahuari area obstructed the operation of the dozer.
The locals said that the road expansion work was being carried out without necessary coordination with the Birgunj Metropolitan City and took a stand not to allow the dozer to operate immediately as discussions are ongoing among the stakeholders on this issue.
Durga Prasad, engineer of the Road Division Office, Hetauda and focal person designated for Birgunj, informed that a meeting of stakeholders has been called on Saturday afternoon to find a way out of the situation arising from the obstruction. According to him, the meeting will be attended by the Chief District Officer, Chiefs of Nepal Police and Armed Police, technicians of the Road Division and concerned parties.
‘Directions have been received from the center to proceed with the road expansion work,’ he said, ‘but the discussion is going on with the aim of proceeding with the work on the basis of consensus without creating any disputes at the local level. We expect a solution to emerge from the meeting.’ According to him, the campaign is planned to start from the northern area of the metropolis and gradually expand southwards to the Nepal-India border area.
The Road Division Office, Hetauda, had written to the Birgunj Metropolitan City on Asad 20, requesting assistance in removing permanent and temporary structures located within 25-25 meters to the right and left of the center line of the road from Sirsiya-Miteri Bridge to Bahuari Gandak Chowk along the Tribhuvan Highway. The campaign could not proceed at that time due to the lack of expected coordination from the metropolis.
Earlier, the office had issued a public notice and given a deadline to remove the structures within the road boundaries itself. In the first phase on April 20 and 21, the Road Department had used dozers on about 1,200 houses and buildings along the main road. In that process, the front part of most of the structures was removed, while the concerned were requested to remove the remaining structures within the road boundary within 25 days. However, after the specified deadline passed, many structures remained intact, the department has started the second phase of the removal campaign.
