Budhigandaki project delay freezes locals’ land and options

Seven years on, project-affected people in Gorkha and Dhading districts have been unable to use, sell or pledge land for loans.

Bishnu Bahadur Shrestha of Arutar in ward 9 of Arughat Rural Municipality, Gorkha, has lived in uncertainty as his 15 ropani (0.76 hectares) of ancestral land has been frozen over the past seven years. The federal government in 2019 ordered to freeze around 300 ropani (15.26 hectares) of land in the Arutar area of ward 9 and the Chanaute area of ward 10.