India to open all forms of rail cargo with NepalSun, 18 Mar, 2012

After lingering for over two years, India finally consented to open all forms of railway cargo to facilitate Nepal´s trade with the southern neighbor and third countries.

Likewise, it also agreed to allow movement of railway cargo services between all Inland Container Depots (ICDs) and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) of Nepal and Indian ports through which Nepal is authorized to carry out third country trade. Until now India had opened operations of closed railway cargo only. Also the existing railway agreement signed between two countries in 2004 allowed limited movement of rail cargo services between Birgunj ICD and Kolkata and Haldiya ports.

“India has agreed on all major agendas. The two countries will now have free exchange of all forms of wagons, including open and flat track wagons from all authorized ports to any ICDs and ICPs,” Naindra Prasad Upadhyaya, joint secretary of Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, told Republica. The agreement was reached Friday when the two-day long bilateral talks to review Nepal-India Railway Service Agreement (RSA) concluded. The newly agreed arrangements, however, will need to be endorsed by the higher authority of the two countries in the form of Letter of Exchange (LoE) within two months.

“The timeline has been set in order to ensure that the two governments complete all necessary formalities at the earliest and the new facilities could come into place soon,” said Upadhyaya, who led the Nepali team in the talks. Broader consensus on these critical provisions has now paved the way for Nepal to operate railway cargo between every ICDs and ICPs in Nepal and newly assigned Vishakapatnam port, apart from Kolkata and Haldiya ports. It would also enable the country to trade with Bangladesh via train through Rohanpur-Singabad railway network.

Similarly, operations of open and flat track wagon would facilitate transportation of liquid, clinkers, coals and other commodities. To facilitate their operations however, operator of existing Birgunj ICD, and other ICDs and ICPs to be connected with railway line in the future, would need to develop layout, storage tank and other infrastructure and logistics services.

“Manager of Birgunj ICD, Himalayan Terminal, would need to develop layout to synchronize its operations with the new facilities. Upcoming ICDs and ICPs too will be required to be developed in the similar fashion,” said another official at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies. Though the talks hammered out consensus on new services that could have far reaching positive impact, it failed to address existing operational level glitches, something that has been troubling traders.

Referring to operational level problems, Nepal had mainly complained about poor services of Container Corporation (Concur) of India and pushed for either substantial improvement of its services and capacity to arrange sufficient containers and railway rack or allow Nepali traders to seek services from private rail operators. The issue was raised as traders in recent years have complained that Concur had not been effective and this, in turn, had compelled them to pay undue demurrage charges and bear other costs. Many import consignments had been stranded in Kolkata port just a couple of weeks ago due to the negligence of Concur - Indian government owned container handler.

“The Indian side admitted to the weaknesses of Concur, but attributed it to technical reasons. Irrespective of their explanation, the talks failed to resolve this issue,” said the source.

News Source: www.myrepublica.com