Birgunj. With the Supreme Court dismissing the writ petition against the expansion of Birgunj’s main road, the Road Division, Hetauda, has written to the Survey Office, Parsa, to demarcate the road in that section.
Guru Prasad Adhikari, Division Chief of the Road Division, Hetauda, wrote a letter to the Survey Office on Chaitra 22, requesting assistance in the work of protecting road property by demarcating a 25/25-meter boundary on the Gandak Chowk-Power House-Ghantaghar-Birta-Rajat Jayanti Chowk-Miterhi Bridge road under the Tribhuvan Highway.
The Division Chief has asked the Survey Office to collect details of houses and huts that will be affected by the expansion of the road before the full text of the Supreme Court is released. He said that a request has been made for demarcation.
‘After the Supreme Court dismissed the writ, we are going to demarcate the road to collect the data required for road expansion,’ he said. ‘The work of road expansion will start only after reading the full text of the Supreme Court. This means that the collection of accurate details of the households affected by the road expansion has begun.’
The division chief officer estimated that it may take three months for the demarcation of the road. ‘We have already written to the survey office. Now how long will it take them to collect the details for sure,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Ward President of Birgunj Mahanagar-9 Jawahar Prasad Gupta has been leading the Birgunj Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, saying that the road should not be expanded. Ward President Gupta expressed the view that the old and historical Med Road (main road) of Birgunj should not be removed and the people should not be displaced.
‘It seems that at least one thousand one hundred households will be affected from Gandak to Rajatjayanti Chowk,’ he said, ‘This is creating a situation where more than 20 thousand ordinary people of Birgunj will be homeless. Therefore, there is no need for development that will displace people.’
Ward Chairman Gupta claimed that there is no justification for expanding the main road, even though Birgunj has a bypass road, a railway road, and sufficient roads from Parwanipur to the dry port. Birgunj Metropolitan Mayor Rajeshman Singh, on the other hand, is in favor of widening the road.
A joint bench of Supreme Court Justices Binod Sharma and Mahesh Sharma Poudel dismissed all five writ petitions of the writ petitioners on February 11, paving the way for the Division Road Office, Hetauda, to widen the main road of Birgunj by 25-25 meters on both sides.
Five separate petitioners from Birgunj had filed writ petitions in the Supreme Court on different dates, stating that the right and left sides of the road should not be widened by 25-25 meters. Laxman Sah Rauniyar of Birgunj Metropolitan City had filed a writ petition in 2076 BS, demanding a halt to the road expansion, naming the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers as the defendant.
Other petitioners have also filed writ petitions against the road expansion on different dates.
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