June 23: Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi flagged off a train departing to Biratnagar ICP from India during an official ceremony at Hyderabad House in Delhi earlier this month. However, after the train delivered goods on June 1, no other cargo train ever appeared at the Integrated Check Post (ICP) again.
Railway officials of Nepal claim that everything is ready at the ICP, while industrialists have been claiming that there is no infrastructure to bring cargo.
At the Jogwani railway station, the salt and iron delivered by the cargo train coming from India are exposed to sunshine and rainwater. Goods unloaded in the open square without proper storage facility have been battered by the rain. Similarly, the sponge iron imported by Morang's Premier Steel and Sunsari's Swastik Rolling Mill is also rusting due to exposure to the monsoon rainfall.
Ramesh Rathi, the owner of Swastik Rolling Mill, said that sponge iron reacts to water and should be protected.
“It will take time to know the extent of the damage done by water," he said.
Businessmen said that after six rakes of goods arrived for three days in a row, there has been a problem in managing the goods.
Four rakes had Salt Trading's Salt, and two rake had Premier and Swastik's sponge iron. Kamala's steel wire which came in two additional rakes was also unloaded in the yard.
According to Rathi, after the goods were unloaded and placed in the yard, they could not be transported. When it rained, Jogwani was waterlogged and the goods got damaged. There is no proper drainage system in the yard.
Biratnagar site in-charge engineer Roshan Dev of the railway department however said that there is no problem with the arrival of goods at the ICP. "We are all ready, but the businessmen do not bring the goods, it is the businessmen's job to bring the goods," he said.
He said that all the technical arrangements were in place at the ICP station just like the first day when the cargo train arrived.
It is seen that the industrialists did not trust the new ICP yard, he said.
urging the industrialists and businessmen to import their cargo through the railway yard.
According to him, cargo handling at the ICP is done by Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Committee. The Railway Operations Department and Customs Office do the checking.
Ashish Gajurel, executive director of the Nepal Intermodal Development Committee, informed that a structure is being built with an investment of Rs 550 million to start importing and exporting goods from the railway yard. He said that Intermodal is working on building a platform in the yard, widening the road from the yard to ICP and constructing a container parking lot.
Anupam Rathi, senior vice president of Morang Trade Association and owner of Premier Steel, said that the cargo train cannot be brought to ICP until the railway department informs the businessmen that the railway yard with all the resources is ready for use.
Rathi said that the government must guarantees that there will not be any inconvenience in cargo handling and customs clearance.
He claimed that 1,500 sacks of sponge iron imported for his industry were destroyed at Jogwani Yard, causing a loss of Rs 4.5 million.
Rathi said that after bringing the goods to the ICP railway yard, there were not enough transport vehicles with Nepali number plates to move the goods. Nepalese transport entrepreneurs do not allow vehicles with Indian number plates to enter the ICP. Therefore, he said that the arrangement of adequate means of transport is the first condition for the operation of cargo trains up to ICP.
"We buy 2400 tons of sponge iron for the industry at one time. We need at least 80 trucks for its transportation," he said. "It is difficult to get 80 trucks with Nepali number plates. On the other hand, if the goods are not picked up from the railway yard at the scheduled time, the detention fee is expensive.
After the inauguration, the railway did not formally inform any industrialists about the facilities there.
