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Indian Railways Halts Loading Nepal-Bound Clinker

  1 min 23 sec to read

December 24: Indian Railways has stopped loading Nepal-bound clinker from Raxaul for an indefinite period following protests from the locals of the bordering town of India who alleged that the transportation of the raw material for cement has been causing pollution in their locality. The railway authorities took the decision to be effected from Saturday (23rd December 2017).

Anil Agrawal, vice president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI), confirmed that an indefinite ban has been imposed by the Indian Railways. Likewise, BCCI President Om Prakash Sharma informed that the government of Nepal didn’t show any interest in addressing the environmental concerns raised by the Raxaul residents.

“The ban has caused worries among Bara and Parsa based cement factories. If the government doesn’t initiate dialogue with the Government of India immediately, the cement factories will crumble,” said Sharma. “We don’t understand why the government is not serious about the issue,” he questioned.

Altogether, 13 cement factories of Bara and Parsa import clinkers from Birgunj Customs Point.

Meanwhile, Nepali importers have requested a delegation of Indian Railways officials who visited Birgunj to review decision but the officials expressed their helplessness mentioning the decision came from the high level railway authorities.

Due to the protests, nine containers of Indian Railways carrying clinker are stranded on the way.

Earlier, residents of Raxaul had been protesting against the transportation of clinker to Nepal since a long time reasoning the increasing air pollution. They had even warned to close the customs point if their demand was not addressed. 

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