Land dispute stalls hospital building construction

By Hari Prasad Koirala,Urlabari, June 2: The building of the Kanepokhari Hospital, which was being built at Kanepokhari-4 in Morang district, has been put on hold due to a land dispute. 

The construction work of the hospital was stopped after the area of Detailed Project Report (DPR) of the hospital building was found to be in the name of the individual. 

In 2020, the rural municipality assigned Jalpadevi Group to complete the hospital DPR. A tender notice was issued estimating the cost of construction of the 15-bed hospital at about Rs 1.5 million rupees including value added tax. 

The DPR area is 1700 square meters, of which 241 square kilometres is outside the ownership of the hospital. The well-known KNKD JV of Kathmandu was given the contract for the hospital's construction for 85 million rupees. 

Ashok Bhakta Shrestha, the owner of the construction company, said, "We had entrusted the responsibility of the construction work to Village Besi Construction. Villagers betrayed us, now we are doing the work ourselves, but the municipality must not delay in vacating the side."

Ramesh Raut, the chairman of the hospital management committee and ward president of Kanepokhari-4, said that the problem had arisen due to the area of the DPR not under the ownership of the hospital.

The construction work of the hospital, which was undertaken as a matter of pride for the municipality, has caused significant harm to the villagers when it was halted. He said that the municipality will give a solution soon after meeting with the stakeholders and political parties. Meanwhile, voices have started to be raised demanding action against the Jalpadevi Group for preparing the mapping on someone else’s land.  

Deepak Chamlagai, a local resident, informed the municipality should clarify why the payment for the DPR was made. 

“Citizens deserve to know that.”