Kathmandu – An agreement has been reached between the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation and the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Committee regarding the use of land in the protected area for the construction of the Dodhara Chandani Integrated Checkpoint and Dry Port and the removal of trees from that location.

42.36 hectares of land in the national forest area located in the buffer zone of the Shuklaphanta National Park is being used for the structure. The Government of Nepal had approved this in a meeting of the Council of Ministers on 2 Asho 2081. The committee has stated that an agreement has been reached between the department and the committee to implement the decision.

With this agreement, the National Park Office will now evaluate the trees at the construction site of the structure and send it to the department. After being certified by the department, the park office will provide a tree felling order. The committee has also stated that upon receiving the order, the committee will carry out the tree felling and pruning work at its own expense.

The project was unable to provide land of the same area for the trees to be cut, so the department was given Rs 148.2 million as compensation.

Along with this, the committee’s executive director Ashish Gajurel informed that the tree cutting order is now awaited. According to him, the tree cutting process will begin as soon as the order is received.

This port is being built with the financial and technical assistance of the Government of India. The total cost of the project is Rs 5.76 billion. The committee has stated that the tender has been prepared to select a company from the Indian side for the construction of this structure.

The committee has also stated that the Indian side has informed that the tender will be published after the tree cutting work is completed.

A port with state-of-the-art trade infrastructure will be constructed there. Under the project, roads, parking areas, platforms, warehouses, weighbridges, container yards, passenger terminals, customs, banks, animal feed laboratories (quarantine), administrative buildings and other structures will be built.

The government has recently accelerated the construction of well-equipped dry ports at the border crossings connecting India and China.