RP1456
The World Bank Funded Qinghai Xining Urban Transit Project
Resettlement Action Plan
Project Construction Management Office for the World Bank Funded Qinghai Xining Urban Transit Project
March 2013
Commitment Letter
The World Bank Funded Qinghai Xining Urban Transit Project will involve land acquisition, demolition and resettlement. Thus, in order to protect the basic rights and interests of the displaced persons and restore or raise the production or living standard of the displaced persons after relocation, the Resettlement Action Plan is prepared as the basis for the implementation of land acquisition, demolition and resettlement of this project in accordance with the involuntary resettlement policy (OP4.12) of World Bank and the pertinent laws and regulations of the central and local governments.
Xining municipal government has reviewed the Resettlement Action Plan and consented that the project is to be implemented in accordance with the requirements of this Plan to guarantee the distribution of resettlement funds at full amount in time and the proper relocation of the affected population with fair compensation. We therefore enjoin the Project Construction Management Office for the World Bank Funded Qinghai Xining Urban Transit Project to take charge of the implementation and management of land acquisition, demolition and resettlement of this project by coordinating related departments.
Xining Municipal Government
(Official Seal)
Mayor (or deputy mayor-in-charge)： (signature) (date)
Foreword
I. Purpose of preparing this resettlement action plan
1 The resettlement action plan (RAP) is prepared in accordance with the applicable laws of the People’s Republic of China and local regulations and a series of provisions in the Bank Operational Policy OP4.12 on Involuntary Resettlement for the purpose of “developing an action plan for resettlement and restoration for the people affected by the project, so that they benefit from the project, their standard of living is improved or at least restored after the completion of the project”.
II. Definitions of terms
Displaced persons
2 Based on the criteria for eligibility for compensation, “Displaced Persons” may be classified in one of the following three groups:
a) those who have formal legal rights to land (including customary and traditional rights recognized under the laws of the country);
b) those who do not have formal legal rights to land at the time the census begins but have a claim to such land or assets—provided that such claims are recognized under the laws of the country or become recognized through a process identified in the Resettlement Plan; and
c) those who have no recognizable legal right or claim to the land they are occupying.
3 Persons covered under paragraphs 2(a) and (b) are provided compensation for the land they lose, and other assistance. Persons covered under paragraph 2(c) are provided resettlement assistance in lieu of compensation for the land they occupy, and other assistance, as necessary, to achieve the objective set out in this policy, if they occupy the project areas prior to a cut-off date[i] established by the borrower and acceptable to the World Bank. Persons who encroach on the area after the cut-off date are not entitled to compensation or any other form of resettlement assistance. All persons included in paragraph 2(a), (b), or (c) are provided compensation for loss of assets other than land.
Compensation and resettlement measures
4 To address the following impacts of the involuntary taking of land: (i) displacement or loss of shelter; (ii) lost of assets or access to assets; or (iii) loss of income sources or means of livelihood, whether or not the APs must move to another location, a Resettlement Plan or a resettlement Policy Framework shall be prepared to cover the following:
(a) The Resettlement Plan or resettlement Policy Framework includes measures to ensure that the displaced persons are:
(i) informed about their options and rights pertaining to resettlement;
(ii) consulted on, offered choices among, and provided with technically and economically feasible resettlement alternatives; and
(iii) provided prompt and effective compensation at full replacement cost[ii], for losses of assets attributable directly to the project.
(b) If the impacts include physical displacement, the Resettlement Plan or resettlement Policy Framework includes measures to ensure that the displaced persons are:
(i) provided assistance (such as moving allowances) during displacement; and
(ii) provided with residential housing, or housing sites, or, as required, agricultural sites for which a combination of productive potential, locational advantages, and other factors is at least equivalent to the advantages of the old site.
(c) Where necessary to achieve the objective of the policy, the Resettlement Plan or resettlement Policy Framework also includes measures to ensure that displaced persons are:
(i) offered support after displacement, for a transition period, based on a reasonable estimate of the time likely to be needed to restore their livelihood and standards of living;
(ii) provided with development assistance in addition to compensation measures described in paragraph 4(a)(iii), such as land preparation, credit facilities, training, or job opportunities.
5 Cut-off date: means the date of publication of the announcement of land acquisition and property demolition in this project. After this date, the displaced persons shall not build, rebuild or expand their properties; shall not change the uses of their properties and land; shall not lease their land, lease, sell or purchase their properties; and any person that moves in after this date shall not qualify as a displaced person.
1. Project Introduction and the Results of the Already Conducted Public Consultation
1.1 Project background
Xining is going through a fast process of urbanization and motorization, as urban construction land increased from 63.8km2 in 2003 to 72.9km2 in 2009 and the car parc increased ten fold from 1991 to 2011.
In such context, the growth in roads can’t catch up with the increase in quantity of motor vehicles in this city, the contradiction between the two being increasingly apparent. During 2000 to 2009, the annual rate of growth in total length of roads within its jurisdiction was only 3.4%, but the annual rate of increase in car parc (excluding motorcycle) reached 14.8%.
The supply of road facilities is far from enough to meet the demands arising from the increase of motor vehicles and therefore the traffic jam is getting worse in Xining, which is reflected on: the disordered traffic and frequent occurrence of accidents; the lower running speed of buses, which has seriously affected the transporting capacity and efficiency; the sharp contradiction between supply and demand of parking space has largely blocked the traffic smoothness.
In order to improve the urban infrastructure of Xining city to meet the demands of urban traffic development, Xining city applied for loans from the World Bank to use them in the construction of urban infrastructure project. This project includes the construct of urban roads, public transit and intelligent transportation system as well as capacity building so as to improve Xining’s urban traffic conditions. The overall goal is to supply rapid, comfortable and safe services to citizens to facilitate the traffic between the center of the city and its western areas by implementing the green transport demonstration corridor project characterized by human orientation and buses priority.
1.2 Project composition
Xining urban transit project mainly includes four subprojects: 1) urban roads; 2) public transit; 3) intelligent traffic management; and 4) organization setting and capacity building. See table 1-1 for the introduction to project contents. The subproject of urban roads mainly contains three urban roads to be newly constructed: Xicheng Avenue, westward extension of Western Wusi Road and the Fifth Road, with land acquisition and demolition involved. In the subproject of public transit, Yanxiaocun (Yanxiao Village) public transit transfer junction involves land acquisition, but the land acquisition had been completed before the pre-appraisal of the World Bank funded project, so it won’t be considered in this Resettlement Action Plan.
Table 0-1 Introduction to Project Contents
Project / Subproject / Contents of Construction / ImpactsXining urban transit project / 1. urban roads / 1) Xicheng Avenue (from south ring expressway overpass toll station to Qaidam Road), about 3.70km long from south to north, serving as urban trunk road, width of boundary lines: 50m, two-way six lanes; newly construct water supply & drainage system, rains and sewage pipe network, general pipe trench, as well as the supporting facilities, including lighting, traffic management and urban landscaping.
2) Westward extension of Western Wusi Road (from Xicheng Avenue to Fourth Road), about 3.49km long from west to east, serving as urban trunk road, width of boundary lines: 60m, two-way eight lanes; newly construct water supply & drainage system, rains and sewage pipe network, general pipe trench, as well as the supporting facilities, including lighting, traffic management and urban landscaping.
3) Fifth Road (from westward extension of Western Wusi Road to Qaidam Road), about 1.02km long from south to north, serving as urban trunk road, width of boundary lines:40m, two-way six lanes; newly construct water supply & drainage system, rains and sewage pipe network, general pipe trench, as well as the supporting facilities, including lighting, traffic management and urban landscaping. / Land acquisition and demolition involved
2. public transit / 1) Wusi Road integrated public transit corridor, including arrangement of bus lane, motor vehicles traffic organization schemes, crossing widening and canalized reconstruction, roadside entrances reconstruction, pedestrian crossing reconstruction, non-motor vehicle traffic improvement, parking improvement, coordinated control of area traffic signal, bridge works, water drainage and other piping works, landscaping works, lighting works etc.
2) Yanxiaocun public transit transfer junction, including the layout of the public transit transfer junction, energy saving and emission reducing facility and its monitoring, environmental design, traffic safety and personal safety related facilities, passenger facilities and operation facilities. / Land acquisition involved only in Yanxiaocun public transit transfer junction
3. intelligent traffic management / 1) Upgrading and improvement of traffic signal control system
2) Construction of bus signal priority system
3) Construction of traffic video surveillance system
4) Construction of traffic guidance system
5) Construction of traffic flow monitoring system
6) Construction of electronic police system
7) Construction of traffic incidents monitoring system
8) Bus lane violations snapshot system
9) Construction of police mobile system
10) Upgrading and reconstruction of intelligent traffic management and command center / No land acquisition or demolition involved
4. organization setting and capacity building / 1) Research on urban transit related issues
2) Project management and technical support
3) Professional skill improvement and capability training
4) Publicity and education / No land acquisition or demolition involved
1.3 Project preparation and implementation progress of Resettlement Action Plan
The expert panel from the World Bank conducted pre-identification for the World Bank Funded Qinghai Xining Urban Transit Project during October 17-18, 2011 and conducted formal identification and initially determined the organizations that would be responsible for the preparation of the Feasibility Report, Resettlement Action Plan and Environmental Impact Assessment Report. During February 8-15, 2012, the staff of the resettlement consulting agency – Center for Involuntary Resettlement Research of China Three Gorges University went to Xining, where they made a door-to-door physical indicators investigation and had communication with the project office about the related projects and the compensation policies for land acquisition. In April 2012, China Three Gorges University received from the project office the 1:500 map of the project boundary area in electronic form which indicates the topographic and land type conditions explicitly and established the land information system by using ARC-GIS software. During May 10-11, 2012, the expert panel from World Bank investigated the technical progress of the preliminary preparation work. More specifically, the expert panel had a detailed assessment on the work including feasibility study, resettlement action plan and environmental impact assessment and put the opinions agreed based on the investigation results into the memorandum. Soon after this meeting, the project office concluded a cooperation contract regarding the preparation of the resettlement action plan with the resettlement consulting agency – Center for Involuntary Resettlement Research of China Three Gorges University. During June 12 to June 20 of 2012, the resettlement consulting agency discussed with Xining Project Office on detailed rules and work scheme for the household survey of physical indicators, and during June 21 to July 15 after issuing the Notice of Ceasing Construction in the affected area in June 20, the first physical indicators investigation was developed in the support of local government organs and the consulting agency also carried out socio-economic survey and the survey about resettlement wish among the affected households. During August to September of 2012, the consulting agency sorted out and analyzed the materials obtained from the first field investigation, established database and submitted investigation report. On December 5 and 6, 2012, World Bank experts, Xining project office and other related agencies reviewed the midterm technical proposal of the feasibility report, and the consulting experts on resettlement and environmental impact assessment also reported their work progress at the conference and minutes of meeting was formed to guide the work of next stage. During January 8-18, 2013, the consulting agency, with the aids of the project office and the governments at all levels in the affected area, carried out public participation and consultation activities among the affected villagers to solicit their opinions and wishes on compensation standard and resettlement methods, including questionnaire survey, symposium and individual interview. During this period, the project office and the consulting agency conducted investigation and statistics on the increment of real objects to be demolished. Finally, On the basis of the above mentioned investigation and public consultation, the Center for Involuntary Resettlement Research of China Three Gorges University finished the first draft of the Resettlement Action Plan in February 2013.
1.4 Identification of related projects
Related projects means other projects directly related to the function or benefits of the project construction during the project preparation or implementation process, that is, the projects related to this project and constructed synchronously with this project during the project preparation and construction process but not funded by World Bank loans.
The identification of the related projects is very important during project design process. Xining project office and World Bank experts have also identified the related projects when doing identification of this project. Analysis indicates that the related projects of this project mainly include South Ring Expressway, Western Section of Western Wusi Road (the Fourth Road – Huangshui Road), and the reconstruction and expansion of Qaidam Road. As for South Ring Expressway, land acquisition and resettlement work had been started before the identification of the World Bank funded project (2011) and Resettlement Due Diligence Report shall be submitted according to the involuntary resettlement policies of World Bank. Although Yanxiaocun public transit transfer junction is part of the World Bank Funded Xining Urban Transit Project, the work of land acquisition and occupation had been completed before the identification of this project, so it is identified as the related project incorporated in the Due Diligence Report (See Appendix 2). Planning Road 1 and Planning Road 2, as the interior paths within Yanxiaocun public transit transfer junction, are covered in the Due Diligence Report. The feasibility report has been completed for the construction of Western Section of Western Wusi Road (the Fourth Road – Huangshui River section) and the reconstruction and expansion of Qaidam Road. Xining municipal government guarantees that the resettlement work involved in these related projects will be implemented in accordance with the resettlement policies adopted for World Bank funded project. According to the involuntary resettlement policies of World Bank, a resettlement policy framework has been prepared for them (see Appendix 3).