Chobhar dry port affected communities file complaint with the World Bank against the construction of the project

Complainants call for immediate halt to budget disbursement and alternative plan for the dry port

[Public Release] 25 April 2020, Kathmandu

Representatives of communities affected by the dry port under construction at Chobhar in south of Kathmandu today filed a complaint with the Inspection Panel – the independent complaint mechanism of the World Bank that is financing the project. They allege failure to uphold free, prior and informed consent of the affected communities – predominatly indigenous Newar – for the project, among other violations, and thus have called on the Bank to immediately stop disbursement of budget as well as all construction activity and adopt an alternative plan for the dry port.

The complaint was filed by the representatives of the Chobhar Protection Committee detailing the concerns and opposition of the indigenous and local communities against the dry port. They allege that the construction of the dry port violates social and environmental safeguard policies of the World Bank as well as Nepali and international laws, including under the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples as well as the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. They have hence requested the Inspection Panel to investigate on the violations of the Bank policies to result in the Bank taking steps to remedy their concerns.

Nepal’s Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli had laid the foundation stone for the dry port in January 2019 amid protests and opposition of the locals. At the time, at least fifty-two locals were arrested from the streets and their houses in a brutal police suppression of their peaceful sit-in and demonstration. Around 150 locals had gathered to oppose the government’s forceful move to construct the dry port in Chobhar that will destroy the place of historical, cultural and environmental significance of Chobhar area without fair acquisition of their land.

The site of the dry port had been previously occupied by Himal Cement Factory, which closed in 2002 due to the concerns about environmental pollution of the locals as well as the mismanagement of the company. In 2017, the government decided to acquire the Factory’s land to build the port and an international exhibition venue over an area of more than 40 hectares, that it plans to directly link the dry port to Indian and Chinese railway stations. The dry port is expected to accommodate 350 trucks and 600 containers, and a 6-lane highway to access the dry port is also planned, linking it to Kathmandu’s Ring Road at Balkhu. According to a 2013 agreement with the World Bank, the deadline to finish constructing the port was by 2019, which has been recently extended to March 2022.

The government had awarded the construction contract of the dry port to the Aashish joint venture and the Lumbini-Koinshi and Neupane joint venture in August 2018. A meeting in November 2018 between Nepal’s Ministry for Industry, Commerce and Supplies, the World Bank and the government agency constructing the dry port – the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board (NITDB) had decided to take the concerns of the locals into consideration. But the construction began without any concrete action to address them with the use of security force to quell any protest at the site.

The main concern of the locals is that the proposed dry port would go through the land of more than 200 people, predominantly indigenous Newars, whose lands were acquired for the Himal Cement Factory. They have been demanding the return of their lands since the closure of the Factory and do not agree with the construction of the dry port in the area. There are also a number of people whose houses were destroyed without compensation when the Factory was built in 1974 as a gift from the German government. They are also concerned that the Project will damage Chobhar’s historical, religious and cultural heritages. The facility will destroy the Jal Binayak Temple, one of the Valley’s most important Ganesh shrines. It also houses Manjushree Cave. Myths and legends about the birth of Kathmandu Valley speak of the deity Manjushree cutting the hill at Chobhar into half with a mighty sword.

Further, they claim that the construction of the dry port could prove disastrous for the entire Kathmandu Valley because Chobhar is a fragile point which is the only outlet for the Bagmati River from Kathmandu Valley and its Environmental Impact Assessment has been far from adequate. The locals had already been tired of the pollution from the earlier Himal Cement factory and are angry that the government’s compensation from cement dust never materialized while the government is also yet to pay 416 employees of the cement factory their salary for 19 months.

Besides submitting petitions and memoranda to the concerned local and national authorities, the affected communities also filed complaints with the grievance mechanism formed under the NITDB, but the government simply ignored most of their concerns, including in relation to land acquisition. The World Bank also considered the government to have resolved our grievances and has allowed the project to go ahead. The locals have expressed their opinion against the suitability of the construction of the dry port in Chobhar and instead sought development of tourism in the area – unanimously in various gatherings. Local government authorities and elected representatives as well as environmental experts have also supported their opposition as described in the complaint.

The complainant Chobhar Protection Committee, composed of landowners demanding return of lands acquired for then Himal Cement Factory and representatives of the locals by various pollution created by the Factory, erstwhile employees of the Factory, the two local community forest user groups and new land and houseowners of the area who will be obliged to lose their properties, has been leading the local opposition against the dry port. The port is being constructed under the World Bank’s Nepal-India Regional Trade and Transport Project, which aims to decrease transport time and logistics costs for bilateral trade between Nepal and India and transit trade along the Kathmandu-Kolkata corridor.

Click here to read the complaint – names of the complainants confidential.

For more information, email Chobhar Protection Committee at chobhar6@gmail.com.