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Jyoti Mukul
New Delhi, Sept 20: The Indian Railways will start getting business from cargo movement between Nepal and the Calcutta port by next year.
At present, most of the cargo moves by road which results in pilferage and smuggling. The construction of 5.3-km broad gauge rail link between Birgunj in Nepal and Raxaul in Bihar, and an inland container depot (ICD) at Birgunj are likely to facilitate transportation of cargo from and into Nepal by Railways.
The containerised traffic at Birgunj is likely to rise from 11,183 teus in 1994-95 to 57,374 teus in 2016-17. Out of this, the share of the Railways is expected to be 40,000 teus in import and 12,000 teus in export.
The total trade volume at the Birgunj facility is expected to be 3.06 million tonne (mt) by 2016-17. While work on the World Bank-funded Birgunj ICD is scheduled to be over in April 2000, construction of Rs 17-crore rail link will begin only after land acquisition work on the Indian side is completed. Land has already been acquired on the Nepaleseside.
Under the original plan, the Railway link had to be ready at least six months before the ICD. However, official sources maintained that during a recent meeting in New Delhi, Bihar government officials had assured that land acquisition would be completed by September-end.
The Rs 17-crore project for laying of Railway track and other associated works is being funded by the Indian government. While the ministry of external affairs will meet the cost of 3.8 km on the Nepal side, expenses on the Indian side are being borne by the Railways.
Letters for the rail link were exchanged during the visit of then prime minister Inder Kumar Gujral to Nepal in June 1997.
From India, the main exports to Nepal are fertiliser, cement, foodgrains, coal, gypsum and salt. Most of the exports from Nepal are through road. Third country imports constituting mainly consumer items are containerised.
RITES Ltd, a Railways undertaking, conducted a feasibility study and prepared a detailed engineering report for the threeinland container depots at Birgunj, Biratnagar and Bhairahawa in Nepal. Out of the three, the Birgunj terminal will be a rail-linked facility.
The three terminals are coming up within a distance of 300 km, with Birgunj in the centre, at a cost of about Rs 66 crore (96 crore in Nepalese currency). The entire project is being funded by the World Bank.
The Birgunj terminal is a greenfield facility while the other two already exist. The Nepal government is in the process of finalising contracts for terminal operations.
The Biratnagar and the Bhairahawa facilities are expected to cost about NC 10 crore, each. Another NC 76 crore will be spent on the Birgunj facility.
While the feasibility study was awarded to RITES under a bilateral agreement, the detailed engineering and traffic study was awarded through the competitive bidding route.
The Biratnagar and Bhairahawa terminals are expected to be ready next month, about 18 months behind schedule.
Copyright © 1999 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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