Save Nepa Valley movement and Nepal Sanskritik Punarjagaran Abhiyan have called for urgent attention of UNESCO, ILO and UN country offices in Nepal to the serious threats of displacement of indigenous Newar communities, violations of their land and resource rights, destruction of cultural heritage and other impacts on them in the historical settlements of Khokana and Bungamati due to the ill-planned Kathmandu – Terai/Madhesh Fast Track (Expressway) and other infrastructure construction projects in the area.

In separate letters emailed to the UNESCO office in Kathmandu in February and to the ILO and UN Country offices on 30 March 2020, the two movements have stated that the Fast Track project along with other ongoing or planned infrastructure and urbanization projects including Bagmati River Basin Improvement Project (Bagmati Corridor), Kathmandu Outer Ring Road and Thankot-Bhaktapur Transmission Line Project and the planned Smart City together will displace the Newar communities of Khokana, which have been affected due to land acquisitions for various public purposes at different times in the past.

They have thus asked the UN bodies to to take the matter in this letter for serious consideration and take appropriate actions under your mandate, including to draw the attention of the Government of Nepal regarding threats to the potential World Heritage Site of Khokana as well as violations of the rights of indigenous Newar communities as per the ILO Convention 169 and UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They have also invited the offices to come for a field visit to the affected communities in Khokana and Bungamati and called for timely and decisive actions before indigenous Newar communities in the area suffers irreversible harm.

Also, in February, representatives of the affected communities as well as some of the affected landowners in Khokana and Bungamati had filed two writ petitions in the Supreme Court stating that the mega projects being constructed or planned would end the ancient civilization of the two towns and calling for the preservation of the traditional settlements. However, the Court have repeatedly postponed hearings on the petition.

Read the letter to UNESCO here.

Read the letter to ILO here.

Read the letter to the UN Country office here.

Details on the human rights violations and other impacts due to the Fast Track project can be read here.