The project office said that more than half of the landowners who lost their lands to the airport had applied for their money. As of Thursday, the project had distributed Rs17.3 million in compensation payments.

Nine landowners have received their compensation payments for 6 ropanis of land. Each landowner got from Rs958,000 to Rs 5.56 million.

Project Director Pradeep Adhikari said that the process of distributing compensation payments to 48 out of the 86 landowners had begun. Adhikari said another 28 locals would receive their money once the paperwork clears. Their documents have to be processed by the municipality, survey and land revenue offices.

The distribution of land compensation was delayed for about two and a half months after a number of locals demanded more money than what the government had fixed.

On February 13, the argument came to an end after the Airport Construction High-Level Facilitation Committee and the Public Concern Committee decided to fix the land compensation payment as per the field report submitted by a technical committee.

The committee jacked up the amount to Rs2.9 million per ropani from the Rs2 million the government had fixed to which the landowners agreed.

After the compensation payments were released, the project acquired land on the eastern side of the proposed runway where the approach lights will be installed. The project is planning to issue a notice to acquire land on the eastern and western sides of the proposed terminal area.

The land acquisition row had put the future of the project in doubt. With the dispute resolved, a team from the China Exim Bank, which has pledged a soft loan to build the airport, visited the project site recently. The group also held talks with government officials regarding the loan.

Project officials said that the compensation payments had been distributed through a one-door system.

The project has instructed its officials to complete the compensation distribution process as per the decision of the High-Level Facilitation Committee headed by lawmaker Rabindra Adhikari.