Om Prakash Khanal

December 24: Nepal's foreign trade was expected to benefit from the competition among transportation service providers. However, the costs outweigh the benefits to the importers.

It has been three months since a private train started operating from Kolkata and Visakhapatnam ports in India to transport goods to Nepal. This competition has become another issue for Nepali importers.

The amendment of the Nepal-India Railway Service Agreement ended the monopoly of the Container Corporation of India (CONCOR) for the transportation of container goods to Nepal. The importers say that CONCOR, which had been enjoying a monopoly on transportation for a decade and a half, is now quarreling under various pretexts.

In the last week of August, India's Hind Terminal, a rival of CONCOR, brought the first train to the dry port of Birgunj.

On the same day, CONCOR tried to discourage its competitor by reducing fares by 30 to 35 percent but failed. Now, the problem is related to loading of container from Kolkata, said a representative of the shipping company.

At present, CONCOR as well as Hind Terminal and Prestin Logistics Infra Projects are providing transportation services from Indian ports.

However, shipments have been delayed due to CONCOR's failure to provide rail racks at the Kolkata port. The shipping company has blamed that CONCOR did not provide a rack for the transportation of container to CIF Birgunj.

Representatives of the shipping company said that even the containers were unloaded on December 3 it is still stuck at the Kolkata port after CONCOR did not provide the rack.

Importer Pradip Kumar Kedia said that the risk of business loss due to late delivery of goods has increased even though the burden of delay fee in Kolkata does not fall directly on the importer.

So far, the importers have not got any benefits from competition among the transportation companies. It is the shipping company that has been taking advantage instead.

Importers are now unable to get container on time due to the attitude of CONCOR.

The importers are worried that the shipping company will recover the financial loss from the importer. Ultimately, this cost burden goes to the consumers.

CONCOR, which initially tried to impress the importers by lowering the fares, has now been playing the spoilsport by not providing rail racks to other competitors.

As other competing companies are weak in terms of infrastructure, 90 percent of container shipments are still under the command of CONCOR.

"It simply came to our notice then. We have initiated a solution by coordinating with the officials of CONCOR,” said Nepal’s Consul General to Kolkata, Ishwar Raj Poudel. According to Poudel, shipping companies and importers have informed the Consulate in Kolkata that CONCOR has not provided them racks. Consul General Poudel said that he had met the senior manager of CONCOR M Mathur and asked him to allocate the necessary racks. He had expressed his commitment to facilitating the racks, added Poudel.