Yeti group compelled people of Dharan to sell their land for cheap to pave the way for a new airport. The group now wants to sell the land, instead of returning it to their rightful owners.
Gopal Dahal | CIJ, Nepal
It was around 2003 when politicians and businessmen from different parts of the country started frequenting Dandaghopa in Dharan. They eventually requested residents of the area to sell them their land so that an airport could be built on it. The landowners hesitated to comply as they had been growing paddy on it to feed their families. But former Mayor Manoj Kumar Menyangbo took it upon himself to encourage city residents to give away their land for the cause. He assured them that in return for the land, residents will get jobs at the new airport when it comes into operation. He also told them that the new airport will help Dharan’s development.
“The former mayor threatened to acquire the land and turn it into a graveyard if the residents didn’t agree to sell their land, “ says Rajendra Shrestha, a resident of Dandaghopa. “That ‘s why we were forced to sell them our land for half the market price,” said Shrestha, who along with his brother Kumar owned 15 kathas and 10 dhur of land that produced enough to support the family for an entire year.
Rajendra Shrestha. Photos: Gopal Dahal
Sita Devi Katuwal, another resident of the area, was also forced to sell her 0.75 bigha land. Her son Indra said, “They pressured us into selling the land saying that an airport will be built in Dharan, and we shouldn’t obstruct such a development activity. They grabbed our land by misleading us.”
The only property city resident Desh Rai owned was 0.1 bigha. After being compelled to sell the land, he was forced to take shelter on a piece of land near the old railway line, and is ill. As he can’t see well, he doesn’t go out of the house much. “At that time, everyone said we should sell the land for the airport, I sold all the land I had,“ Rai said. “I now feel sad to see that the airport wasn’t built.”
Yeti Airlines mobilised local leaders, land dealers and bureaucrats to grab seven bigha and five kattha land belonging to 25 households of Dandaghopa at cheap prices saying that it will build an airport for the city. Of the total 7.25 bigha, 6.9 bigha was bought by a separate company named ‘Yeti Incorporated Pvt Ltd’. The remaining was bought by the then promoter of Yeti Airlines Kundan Shamsher Jung Bahadur Rana.
Ang Tshering Sherpa, the then chairman of Yeti Airlines Pvt Ltd, died in a helicopter crash on February 27, 2019 in Pathibhara, Taplejung. Promoter Rana is also no more.
A decision passed by the annual general meeting of Yeti Incorporated Pvt. Ltd states that Sherpa’s wife Chanda is the chairman of the company, Vijay Bahadur Shrestha, former manager of Yeti Airlines (currently Himalayan Airlines) is the managing director, and Ashok Kumar Aggarwal, a real estate businessman from Dharan, is a director of the company. It is mentioned in the company’s deed that 80 percent of the shares of the company, which initially had an authorized capital of Rs 50 million and an issued capital of Rs 10 million, were held by Sherpa and 20 percent by Shrestha. It appears in the documents that Aggarwal, who worked as a ‘representative’ of Yeti Incorporated when the land parcels were bought for cheap, is now a director of the company.
Manoj Kumar Menyangbo, former mayor, Dharan and Ashok Aggarwal, owner of Yeti Incorporated Pvt.
Aggarwal, who hobnobbed with political leaders, instigated former mayor Menyangbo to participate in the land grab. Menyangbo initially told Jeevan Bhattarai, a resident of Dandaghopa, about the proposal to build an airport and asked his help to procure the land. Bhattarai, a CPN (UML) cadre, owned 0.35 bigha, his father Maniram 0.15 bigha and sisters Lakshmia and Sita 0.2 bigha. “We thought that a person who had already served as mayor of the city would think of our interests, but it was only later that we realised it was a ploy to grab our land, ” he said.
Back in the days when King Gyanendra imposed his direct rule over the country, Kumar Bahadur Karki and Meen Kumar Subba became mayor and deputy mayor of the city. Municipal officials, including Karki and Subba, convened a meeting of the landowners at Panchakanya School in the neighborhood. According to residents, a kattha (0.05 bigha) of land fetched around Rs 40,000 to 60,000 in the locality during the days. However, the officials told the residents to sell the land at half the market price as their contribution to the new airport. Mayor Karki also assured the residents that after the airport is built, family members of the displaced land owners will get priority during the recruitment of the workforce. The officials said that those who didn’t cooperate would have their land seized by the government and wouldn’t get a penny for their plots. “After that, many people agreed to sell their land,“ Rai, also a lawyer, said. ” My sister and relatives gave away 0.95 bigha of land.” Some people’s land was spared after they fled overnight and went incommunicado.
On March 23, 2004, the municipality convened another meeting and issued an order to categorise the land selected for the new airport. The land was divided into two categories: ‘A’ and ‘B’. Owners of land parcels that fell under the first category would receive Rs 32,000 per kattha while those under category B would receive Rs 28,000. It is clearly written in the minutes of the meeting that preference would be given to landowners’ family members when recruiting the workforce for the new airport. It was decided that if the plan unravels due to any reason, those who sold the land will be allowed to buy it back at the price they sold it to the company.
Land in Dandaghop, Dharan-17, where the Yeti Group planned to build an airport.
The then Mayor Karki said that he convened the meeting after he learnt that former Mayor Menyangbo and Aggrawal were looking for cheap land to build an airport. “We doubted that they came to buy land for the airport, so we prepared an agreement in the presence of the municipal officials, ” he said. He said, ” The terms and conditions laid out in the agreement should be followed by everyone.” The land owners are demanding that their land be returned to them at the same price they sold it to the company, if the plan to build the airport doesn’t materialise.
On the one hand, the land isn’t big enough to build an airport, and on the other, technicians have already pointed out that the location it’s not suitable for an airport. Political parties have already set up squatter settlements next to the land, and Nepal Electricity Authority’s Koshi Corridor 220 KV transmission (high tension) line runs nearby. An airport is already in operation in Biratnagar, some 40 km away, and a six-lane road is planned to connect the city. The government also isn’t interested in building another airport as there’s already another airport in Jhapa’s Chandragadi Airport only 109 km away.
After work on the airport was not started nine years after the land was sold, on June 6, 2012, Indra Katuwal, representing the former land owners, filed a complaint at the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority saying that the community’s land was grabbed under duress. In the complaint, he mentioned that members of a land mafia mobilised local politicians and leaders to buy the land for cheap. The commission did write to the Sunsari district administration, and Dharan municipality asking them to submit documents related to the case. However, the commission is yet to act on the complaint.
As the dispute escalated, the municipality banned the sale of more than 80 bigha of land in Dandaghopa. It also prohibited the construction of any physical structures. Manoj Bhattarai, ward chair of Dharan-17 and the then president of ‘Airport Construction Concern Forum’, says that the municipality imposed such a ban without a policy decision. Now the bans related to the land, except for the parcels owned by Yeti Incorporated, have been lifted.
After work on the airport work didn’t start years after the land was sold, the landowners met former mayor Menyangbo, the then deputy mayor Subba, representative of Yeti Incorporated Aggrawal and inquired numerous times. “They always told us work would start soon. It was only later that we came to know that as per the prevailing laws, private companies don’t even have the authority to build airports,“ says Jeevan Bhattarai.
After learning that they had been duped, the landowners convened a discussion with local representatives of the then seven major political parties. They even met Shrestha. “He said that as private companies won’t be allowed to build an airport, they will return the land to us, but they didn’t do it, ” he said.
Former mayor Menyangbo says that both Ang Tshering and Agarwal were his friends and they had bought the land in the hope of building an airport. “We cooperated with them in good faith. But for some reason, the airport wasn’t built. Now I hear that the land mafias are on the prowl to grab the land, ” he said.
Advocate Dhruba Ghimire, who has been looking into the matter for eight years, says the land dealers grabbed the land in a planned manner. He said, “There is a ceiling on individual ownership of land, so they bought it by setting up a company. They never wanted to build an airport.”
Ministry’s questionable conduct
When the country was actively ruled by the monarchy, businessman Sashiram Bhandari illegally grabbed a contract to operate the Dharan-based Nirvana Country Club and Golf Course owned by the BP Koirala Health Science Institute in Dharan for 50 years. The plot to ‘build an airport’ was allegedly hatched when Rana, who was friends with Bhandari, visited the club. According to a businessman considered an ally of Rana, Sherpa was connected to the scheme through him.
Although the government passed its policy on the development of public infrastructure and its handover, to facilitate the participation of the private sector in the development of infrastructure, it hadn’t prepared necessary laws and regulations to implement the policy. Although there was no clear law to allow a private company to build an airport, Yeti Group looked for land to build an airport. Aggrawal, Sherpa’s friend and partner in various businesses, took charge of the whole idea. He gained the support of his friend former Mayor Menyangbo. Both of them succeeded in persuading the then mayor/deputy mayor as well to tag along.
The agreement prepared by municipal representatives states that the land shall be returned to the original owners at the original price if plans to build the airport are botched.
After the Yeti Group bought the land from the residents, the municipality board wrote to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on April 30, 2004 recommending that a license be issued to Yeti to build an airport for the city. It stated that Yeti Incorporated has the technical and managerial capabilities to build and operate an airport within six months. However, the company, which was registered only on August 15, 2003, had no experience of doing such work.
Twenty days after the municipality’s recommendation, the ministry issued a public notice calling interested parties to build a short take-off and landing (stoll) airport under the build, own, operate and transfer (boot) model. Yeti submitted its letter of intent on August 8. Other companies couldn’t submit proposals, as the land had already been occupied by Yeti. The ministry withdrew the call on September 7 saying that Yeti didn’t have any other competitors. It issued a notice again on September 22, and Yeti re-submitted its proposal on November 5. Once again, it was rejected on the grounds that no other company filed an application and that Yeti had no experience in building airports. According to experts, the ministry colluded with Yeti to first issue a notification and reject the proposal so that the landowners could be fooled into thinking that the government really wanted to build an airport in Dharan.
The municipality re-sent a recommendation to the ministry for the construction of a ‘stoll airport’ on September 14, 2005. Soon after, the political equation changed with the end of the monarchy and the establishment of democracy, and the airport plan was shelved for a long time.
In the meantime, the then Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation approved the ‘Nepal Civil Aviation Authority Infrastructure Construction , Development and Operation Regulations on April 11, 2010. The regulations incorporate provisions for the participation of the private sector in the construction, development and operation of infrastructure related to air transport services. Although this regulation laid the provision for the ‘boot’ model as requested by Yeti, the company didn’t proceed with the building process.
Instead, Yeti’s representative Aggrawal and owner Sherpa planned to sell the land to the Civil Aviation Authority at a high price using political influence as only the Civial Aviation Authority was authorised to build airports. Section 6 (a) of the Civil Aviation Authority Act states that the authority shall construct, reconstruct, develop, expand and maintain airports in the country.
In Dharan, local leaders wanted the municipality to buy the land from Yeti and make it available to the civil aviation authority. Tara Subba, then UML city president, Congress city president Kishore Rai, Maoist city in-charge Phokwahang Subba (Chotlung), and the concern forum president Bhattarai were in favour of the idea,
In February 2012, Chotlung, his brother Maoist leader Mukesh Kumar Menyangbo and others invited then Civil Aviation Minister Lokendra Bista Magar to Dharan with a technical team. After discussions with Yeti representative Aggrawal, former mayor Menyangbo and forum president Bhattarai, the minister promised to build an airport with the help of the Civil Aviation Authority.
Minister Bista and Sherpa from the Yeti Group also had a discussion at the Civil Aviation Authority on the issue. “At that time, Ang Tsering said that since the minister is positive about building the airport, he was ready to sell the land to the civil aviation authority if the government didn’t authorise the private sector to build an airport,“ Chotlung said.
Then Sherpa and Aggrawal tried to sell the land to the Civil Aviation Authority. Local leaders also tried to get more land. After flying a drone paid for by the Civil Aviation Authority, Bista’s technical team submitted a report stating that at least 13 bigha, seven kathas and two dhurs of land was required for a ‘stoll airport’. On April 29, 2012, the minister gave the authority his go-ahead to build the airport.
On April 12, 2012 an all-party meeting held under the chairmanship of Ganesh Prasad Khatiwada, acting executive officer of the municipality, decided to vacate the seven bigha land in Dandaghopa municipality and provide the said land to the civil aviation authority. The authority wrote to the municipality on May 14 and June 4 seeking information about the remaining land needed for the airport. In response, the municipality wrote to the authority saying that land under the ownership of Yeti Group needs to be acquired by the authority itself. In other words , this decision was an attempt by the municipality to make the authority buy the land owned by Yeti. However, on September 5, the authority set a condition that the land that was to be provided by the municipality be transferred in their name first.
As the locals were protesting, it wasn’t conducive for the municipality to acquire other parcels of land. Therefore, the decision of the all-party committee couldn’t be implemented. The then Minister for Aviation Bista Magar said that he tried to build the airport after his friends requested him to do so. He said, “ Many people from here and elsewhere used to come to talk about the airport. I said we will try if it is possible.”
Millions of budget for fictional airport
In 2014, when UML leader Bhim Prasad Acharya became Minister for Tourism in the government led by Sushil Koirala, Yeti group again tried to take advantage. Acharya allocated a budget of Rs 60 million for the airport after an on-site inspection. However, after he quit, the whole project was stuck in limbo. Later, Kripasur Sherpa, president of the Pasanglhamu Mountaineering Foundation which was run under the leadership of the Yeti group, became the minister for tourism. He also said that a budget of Rs 10 million will be allocated for the airport immediately.
After Jeevan Bahadur Shahi became Minister for Tourism, Congress leaders started lobbying to build an airport in Dharan. Congress leader Meen Bahadur Bishwakarma, who is also a local resident, came to Dharan on February 1, 2017 with Minister Shahi. At that time, Shahi informed the locals that he had allocated two million rupees for the airport. The government had allocated Rs 5 million for the detailed survey and Rs 15 million for its environmental impact assessment (EIA).
It was then planned to build an airport where an ATR 42 aircraft could land. The civil aviation authority’s team came again to study the feasibility. After the study, on June 15, 2017, director of the authority, Dhruvdas Bhochibhoya, sent a report to the municipality stating that 93.25 bigha of land would be required to build the airport. In the letter, it was requested that the necessary land be provided for free.
Since then, the airport plan has been stalled, but it hasn’t stopped featuring on political parties’ election promises. In the policy and programme of the fiscal year 2021/2022, the Province 1 government mentioned that it would take the initiative to build an airport. In the same year, Dharan sub-metropolitan allocated a budget of Rs. 8 million to acquire land, but all in vain.
Now, with the elections round the corner, former Chief Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya wrote to the municipality suggesting that an airport can still be built in Dharan. “I allocated a budget for it, but I couldn’t implement the idea. Even a small airport can be built and mountain flights can be operated from there, ” he said.
Sanjeev Gautam, former director-general at the authority, says that despite the interest to build the airport, the whole idea is fraught with problems. He says, “Dharan doesn’t need an airport as neighbouring Biratnagar already has one. It is difficult to break-even, even if it is built.”
Economist Rajendra Sharma, who is familiar with the plan, says that since a six-lane road will connect Dharan with Biratnagar soon, the airport in Biratnagar airport will be just half an hour away. “Even if an airport is built in Dharan, it will only incur losses.”
Plans to develop real estate
Yeti Group now plans to sell the land to real estate developers. More than half a dozen groups are actively talking to the land owners and Yeti Incorporated to secure the land papers. They are even proposing some extra money to the landowners if they agree to sell the land.
A few months ago, a group of businessmen from Dharan under the leadership of Aggrawal, the Yeti representative, even gave an advance to Sherpa’s wife Chanda to buy the land. However, the deal didn’t move ahead due to disagreements. Bhattarai, the land owner, says that the group, which includes representatives from the business house Batas, is giving the land owners assurances that they will buy land from Yeti and pay them Rs 1.2 million per kattha. “Our demand is that the land should be returned to us as per the agreement if an airport is not built,” he added.
When we contacted Aggrawal to talk about the issue, he said he didn’t know anything about it. Shrestha, managing director of Yeti Incorporated, admitted that they were going to sell the land because the government didn’t allow them to build an airport. However, he said that the land can’t be sold for the same amount as before. He said, “At that time, we bought it at the prevailing market price. We can’t sell it at the same price after 20 years.”
The said land now costs Rs 6-8 million rupees per kattha. Seven bigha are now worth around one billion rupees. Land dealers now plan to give 1.2 million per kathha each to Yeti and the land owners and pocket a profit of Rs 3 million per kattha.
Economist Sharma says that since the airport couldn’t be built, the land should be returned to the original owners as per the conditions set during the acquisition process. He says, “Since the airport could not be built, the company should be liquidated and the land should be returned to the original owners according to the written agreement.”
Senior advocate Harihar Dahal says that the Land Acquisition Act states that if the government acquires land from private property owners for a specific project, it should return it to the original owners if it can’t implement the project. “In the case of Dharan, even if the land was purchased by a private company, the original land owners should get the land back because the official documents were prepared with the participation of the municipal government,“ Dahal said.
Aindra Vikram Wegha, deputy head of Dharan sub-metropolitan city, also says that the land should be returned as per the conditions laid out in the agreement as it is now clear that the airport won’t be built now. He says, “On behalf of the municipality, we will take the initiative to implement them.”
Note: Kattha and bigha are land measurement units in Nepal’s Tarai. Note 1 bigha = 1.67 acre, 20 kattha = 1 bigha
