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Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway: Army cuts 14k trees to build expressway
The Nepal Army, the government appointed developer of the Kathmandu-Tarai expressway, has so far cut down around 14,000 trees to build the 76-km road that will reduce travel time from the country’s capital to Nijgad in the south to less than an hour.Pratap Bista
The Nepal Army, the government appointed developer of the Kathmandu-Tarai expressway, has so far cut down around 14,000 trees to build the 76-km road that will reduce travel time from the country’s capital to Nijgad in the south to less than an hour.
The army that started cutting trees from NIjgad has now arrived at Budhune area of Makwanpur district. For the last 12 days the army has been cutting trees in five community forests of Budhune and is flattening the land using heavy-duty vehicles. Around 1,000 trees have been cut down in this area so far. The army will cut down a total of around 12,000 trees in Budhune.
“As soon as we cut trees, we hand over the logs either to the community forest or the district forest office,” said Brigadier General Bharat Bahadur Khadka.
The Nepali Army has mobilised 265 personnel to cut trees and flatten the land. Around 200 army personnel have been deployed in Budhune, 35 in Lane Danda and 30 in Sisneri. “We will cut down around 114,000 trees by the end of February,” said Khadka.
Once the required number of trees are cut down, the army will set up bases in 10 locations to build the expressway. Each base will have 100 army personnel. These bases will be set up in Dovan of Sisneri, Bhakkubesi, Lane Danda, Budhune, Bagdev, Khokana, Thingan, Rajdamar, Nijgad and Adheri.
The four-lane highway will be 25-metre wide in plain areas and 23-metre wide in hilly areas.
A high level committee formed under the vice-chairman of the National Planning Commission had last February suggested to the government to build the project itself to save time and expense. The government eventually decided to hand over the project to the army in May 2017.
Before the project was handed over to the army, the then government led by Sushil Koirala had decided to appoint an Indian consortium to build the expressway. At that time, the Indian consortium was promised a minimum revenue guarantee of up to Rs15 billion annually if traffic failed to generate adequate profits. The government of that time had also proposed to extend a loan to the developer at a subsidised interest rate. The plan fell apart after the Supreme Court issued an interim order in October 2015 against awarding the project to the Indian consortium.
Subsequently, the KP Sharma Oli administration made a fresh decision to build the project by mobilising the government’s own resources. The Pushpa Kamal Dahal-led government gave continuity to the plan. Later, a Cabinet meeting decided to terminate past agreements and decisions cleared all obstacles for the government to build the project on its own.
The expressway is a national pride project and will work as an alternative route to connect Kathmandu with southern plains. The expressway will pass through Kathmandu, Lalitpur, Makwanpur and Bara districts.