EIA for construction of road inside national park

Bharatpur (Chitwan), Sept 3: A Detailed Project Report and Environmental Impact Assessment will be carried out for the construction of a blacktopped road running through the Chitwan National Park. A team of the Ministry of Forestry, Postal Road Project, the Park and People’s Representative conducted an on-site inspection and started the process towards this end. Trapping cameras will be installed from Dhurvaghat in Bharatpur to Riu in Madi to determine the area of mobility of wild animals.

Director of Postal Highway Project, Shubraj Neupane, said that the area for construction of ‘underpass’ and ‘flyover’ will be decided on the basis of the DPR. Director Neupane said that after the park provides records of wildlife movement through camera trapping, the design work will proceed. The construction work will proceed only after completion of survey, design and EIA work. It will take six months to one year for the completion of DPRand the EIA will be done after completion of DPR.

The Ministry of Forests and Environment has given consent to the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport to prepare an EIA report to bring the road into operation. Forest and Environment Ministry Secretary Rewathiraman Paudel, Bagmati Provincial Assembly Member Thakur Dhakal, Bharatpur Mayor Renu Dahal, Chitwan National Park Chief Conservation Officer Dil Bahadur Pun, Madi Municipality Deputy Mayor Khem Prasad Mahato, Postal Road Project Chief Dhruv Jha among others participated in the inspection.