October 10: A section of the 18.6 km cargo broad gauge railway track from Bathnaha in India to Kathari Rural Municipality via Biratnagar has been completed. However, another section of the railway track remains incomplete due to the dispute over compensation.  The construction company Ircon has returned back with its equipment after the locals obstructed its work.

The construction of the first section from Bathnaha to Biratnagar ICP measuring 8 km was completed and jointly inaugurated by Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Pushpa Kamal Dahal on June 1. On the day of the inauguration, the cargo train carrying raw material of Aarati Strip came and returned. But even after 6 months of inauguration, not a single train has hit the tracks. Importing industrial raw materials by cargo train is expected to reduce the freight charge by at least 40 percent, but the cargo train is yet to operate.

In the second section, the work remains to be done in 10 kilometer stretch from Biratnagar customs to Ward No 1 of Kathari Rural Municipality. Although the infrastructure is ready for laying the track, the Indian company Ircon returned back with its equipment due to the compensation dispute.

Ircon says that it cannot work according to the cost of the contract signed 12 years ago. According to Ircon, the equipment is taken back because the price of construction materials have increased and there are problems on the site. Deepak Kumar, manager of Ircon said that the land was not made available and the equipment was taken away as his company is also undertaking other contract works in India.

There was a bilateral agreement that the Nepalese side should acquire 119 bighas of land and let Ircon work for the construction of the railway track. The compensation determination committee at that time distributed compensation at the rate of Rs 200,000 per kattha of land. However, the owners of six-bigha land filed a case at the Supreme Court saying that they were not satisfied with the compensation provided by the government. The decision is still sub judice in the apex court.

Altogether 22 people including Bishwonath Majhi of Kathari 1 had filed a case in the Supreme Court saying that they were not satisfied with the compensation.

As the government did not provide land for the construction of the station yard, the work was halted, said Manoj Poddar, a sub-contractor. Ircon awarded the contract to SC Agarwal Company of Delhi for the construction of railway link. The said company has sub-contracted the work to  Ready Construction of Biratnagar.

Manager of the Department of Railways Nirajan Kumar Jha said that the contract will be canceled if the construction work does not go ahead before Dashain. The contractor warned that the contract will be terminated if the land is not available before Dashain.

The construction of the 18.6 km long broad gauge railway from Bathnaha in India to Katahari in Nepal was started in 2011 at an estimated cost of about INR 4 billion by the Ircon Company. Construction should have been completed by 2017, but so far, only less than half of the work is done.