The locals at Bhairahawa who have been involved in land acquisition process for under construction Gautam Buddha International Airport (GBIA) project started protest against the authority for delayed distribution of compensation.
They have warned the project authority to halt the construction if compensation distribution doesn’t start. As per the protestors, almost 1700 farmers are required to receive the compensation amount however, only 12 per cent of them have received so far.
The agitated land owners are also demanding latest land evaluation as there is price hike at every sectors and their land was evaluated three years ago. Likewise, they have also been urging the government should not collect taxes while distribution of compensation.
The major infrastructural work of GBIA related to international terminal building, administration building, control tower, runway and apron is under way and 42 per cent of physical progress has been achieved till now.
The sub base layer for 3km long runway has been completed and the base course layer project has been initiated which will take 2 months for the completion. After that the blacktopping work will be commenced.
The project was awarded to China’s Northwest Civil Aviation Airport Construction Group in November 2013 for Rs. 6.22 arba and was expected to be completed by end of 2017 but due to shortages of fuel and building materials and due to the months-long Terai closure in 2015 delayed the works by six months along with dispute between the Chinese contractor and the Nepali sub-contractor, Northwest Infra Nepal, and its operation deadline was revised to June 2018 and now to 2019.
