Politics and Processes of Local-level Dispute Resolution in Infrastructure Development Projects in Nepal: A Rapid Assessment
Execution delays in large infrastructure development projects in Nepal are fairly common. There are, for instance, twenty-four large infrastructure projects that appear in the “national pride project list,” a Government of Nepal list of highest-priority infrastructure projects in the country. All 24 projects have been delayed by two years or more. While there are multiple factors that contribute to the delays, this assessment focuses on local-level disputes in infrastructure projects, which mostly revolve around land acquisition processes and constitute a major reason for the delays. It examines a set of cases to document prevailing typology of disputes, dispute resolution practices, legal basis and arrangements for resolving disputes, external political influences on the dispute resolution processes, and provides some evaluative commentaries on the efficacy of these arrangements.
