Three years on, modern slaughterhouse remains idle in Butwal

By Laxman Paudel, Bhairahawa, July 26: A modern livestock slaughterhouse built in Ramnagar, Butwal-10, to provide consumers with hygienic meat, end unregulated animal slaughter and ensure a reliable market for farmers' livestock has remained non-operational for the past three years.

The facility, constructed at a cost of approximately Rs. 221.3 million, has remained unused, putting millions of rupees of public investment at risk while leaving the project's intended objectives unfulfilled.

The project, launched in the fiscal year 2019/20, was jointly funded by the Lumbini provincial government, Butwal Sub-metropolitan City, Heifer International, and local meat entrepreneurs. Designed with modern facilities, the slaughterhouse has the capacity to slaughter up to 1,000 goats daily, store meat from up to 250 animals at a time in cold storage, and manage waste through an environmentally friendly system. Despite the infrastructure being completed, operations have yet to begin.

Following the completion of construction, the slaughterhouse was handed over to Muktinath Livestock Bank Limited under a five-year operating agreement. 

According to the company's Chairman Umesh Acharya, the agreement required Butwal Sub-metropolitan City to control unregulated animal slaughter outside the facility. However, as this was not effectively enforced, the slaughterhouse failed to receive enough animals for processing.

He said only eight to ten goats were being slaughtered each day, making the project financially unviable. The company subsequently filed a case in court seeking the termination of the agreement.

The sub-metropolitan city, however, maintains that the company failed to fulfil its contract obligations and did not pay the required fees. 

According to Roshan Kumar Regmi, chief of the Revenue Administration Section at Butwal Sub-metropolitan City, the company's security deposit has been withheld. As the dispute is currently under consideration at the district court, the municipality says it cannot initiate a new operating process until a verdict is delivered.

Another point of contention concerns the operating model. Although the project was originally conceived as a public-private-producer-cooperative partnership, responsibility was eventually handed to a private company, a move that dissatisfied local meat traders. Bishal Thapa, president of the Rupandehi Meat Entrepreneurs' Association, said disputes emerged from the outset because the agreement to operate the facility with the participation of farmers and meat entrepreneurs was never implemented.

The project's technical partner, Heifer International Nepal, also believes the project weakened after departing from its original partnership model. 

Its Executive Director, Dr. Tirtha Regmi, said the absence of shared ownership among farmers, entrepreneurs and the local government had hindered operations. Dr. Regmi suggested reinstating the original partnership framework to ensure the project's long-term success.

In 2022, Butwal Sub-metropolitan City introduced a legal provision requiring only meat processed at the slaughterhouse to be sold in the market. However, as the facility has never become operational, the regulation has yet to be enforced.

Of the total project cost, the Lumbini government contributed Rs. 133.1 million, Heifer International invested Rs. 40 million, and Butwal Sub-metropolitan City provided Rs. 30 million. The remaining amount was raised from the meat entrepreneurs.