Narayani River Excavation Ordered to Be Regulated by Nawalpur District Monitoring Committee

Nawalpur. The District Monitoring Committee Nawalpur has directed to regulate the excavation of the Narayani River flowing through Nawalpur and Chitwan. The committee, during its on-site inspection, found that excavation in the Narayani River was being carried out in an uncontrolled manner and has directed to regulate river excavation. The coordinator of the committee and chief of the District Coordination Committee Nawalpur, Baburam Bishwakarma, said that riverine materials were being excavated arbitrarily from the Narayani River. He stated that excavation was done by digging deeper pits than permitted and also in areas other than those specified after environmental impact assessment. He said that riverine material excavation should not be done against the rules.

“We had conducted inspections before as well, and when it was not seen to be done according to the rules, we had given various suggestions to make it compliant with the rules,” said Chief Bishwakarma, “but even after a week, there was no satisfactory improvement.”

Chief Bishwakarma said that although four excavators should be used in the river, more than that were found to be in use, and the actual details of riverine materials transported from the river and transit vouchers should be regular. He said that excavation using up to nine excavators and more than 200 trippers daily has extracted more riverine materials than necessary, and a measurement should be done immediately.

“We are sensitive to the fact that riverine material excavation should not be done against the rules,” said Chief Bishwakarma, “In our previous inspections regarding this matter, we have made it clear that the excavation should be leveled (excavated at a uniform depth), the area of excavation should be clear, it should be done according to the transit order, and there should be municipal police and Nepal Police in the excavation area.”

During the inspection, when questioned about seeing more trippers than necessary, the contractor's side responded that trippers were brought here because other rivers were not open, according to Chief Bishwakarma. He said that instructions have been given not to use more trippers than necessary and to provide the actual details to the monitoring committee.

Locals have complained that during the transportation of stones, gravel, and sand from the river, water was leaking onto the highway and dust was being raised on the road. Chief District Officer Bhabishwar Pandey directed that transportation should be done without water leaking from the trippers after excavation and that the trippers should be covered with tarpaulin during transportation.

“The municipality is responsible for regulating transportation, and we will provide security arrangements if needed,” he said, “The transportation of riverine materials can be monitored by CCTV cameras.”

CDO Pandey said that they were not aware of the excavation being done by building dams and changing the course of the Narayani River. Regarding the transportation being done by placing hume pipes in the Narayani stream and constructing a road, he said that an access road would be necessary to transport riverine materials from the excavation site to the main road, so this should not be opposed.

“We are not very aware of the issue of blocking the river itself. However, it has come to our notice that some dams have been built because floodwaters could wash away the equipment placed for excavation,” he said, “We will have the dam dismantled after the excavation is completed.”

The municipality had initiated the tender process by issuing a notice in the past month of Magh. According to the e-bidding (online tender) process initiated by the municipality, four companies had bid for the excavation of riverine materials. Among those who bid, since the first and second companies did not accept the contract, the third company, Gimmal Builders, which offered the highest amount, secured the contract for the excavation of riverine materials.

The municipality has awarded the contract for the excavation of approximately Rs 40 million for 78,000 cubic meters of riverine materials to Gimmal Builders, said Chief Administrative Officer of the municipality, Ramchandra Lamgade. Lamgade stated that according to the transit voucher, 49,800 cubic meters of riverine materials have been excavated from the river, and Gimmal Builders has stated that it is not necessary to excavate all the designated areas for the remaining 29,000 cubic meters of riverine material excavation. Officer Lamgade said that action would be taken if more equipment than agreed upon was used in the excavation and transportation of riverine materials. Gimmal Builders received permission to extract riverine materials from April 25.