JANAKPURDHAM:  The Dhanusha District Coordination Committee (DCC) has started releasing vehicles of Chinese contractors involved in the quarrying of stones and ballast in the Kamala River after levying fines.

Police had seized seven tippers and an excavator while conducting unauthorized excavation in Kamala River at Ganeshman Charnath Municipality-5 on February 13.

A team from the Area Police Office Dhalkewar had seized the vehicles and equipment after the Chinese company China Railway No. 2 Engineering Group, which was awarded a contract to build a four-lane road on the East-West Highway, was excavating stones and ballast in the Kamala River. The drivers had absconded.

Dhanusha police had sent a team to the district coordination committee to take necessary action against those involved in the illegal excavation.

The committee has released an excavator with a fine of Rs 30,000. Chairman of the committee Ramdev Banarait told Khabarhub, “On Wednesday, they (Gadibala’s party) deposited Rs 30,000 and released the excavator.” The other seven tippers have not been released yet. He said that the tippers will be released one time with a fine of Rs 20,000.

Committee Chairman Banarait said, “We have been releasing the vehicles and equipment involved in the excavation work taking the fine for two times taking fine.” If found involved in the excavation for the third time, we will take action. ‘

The company is piling stones and ballast taken from Kamala in the yard at Karjanha in Siraha. The company had been digging sand and ballast from the machine for about four days. In the evening, sand and ballast were being removed by placing a machine in the river.

Meanwhile, the Chinese contractor company had increased the pressure on Dhanusha police through people’s representatives to release the tipper and excavator. Gyanu Shrestha, deputy mayor of Karjanha municipality, said that she had given permission to excavate and put pressure to release the vehicle.

 The company has won a contract of expanding an 87-km long section in eastern Nepal which is part of the 1,028-km long East-West Highway that runs through the southern plain of Nepal.

The road will be expanded to four dedicated lanes along with two service lanes in urban centers from the current two lanes, according to the Department of Road.

“The Chinese company has mobilized the resources in the project site starting from late November,” Deepak Shrestha, project director at Project Directorate (Asian Development Bank) under the Department of Road, told Xinhua on Sunday.

This section of road is being expanded with the funding of the Asian Development Bank.

In March last year, another Chinese company, China Construction Seventh Engineering Division, started work on a 113-kilometer road extension project in southwestern Nepal, which falls under the East-West Highway.

Almost all major highways in Nepal have only two lanes without dividers and the Government of Nepal aims to expand them to four lanes in the coming years.

The East-West Highway connecting Mechi district in the east and Kanchanpur district in the west was constructed in 1961.