The Hindu Business Line : India, Nepal rail services pact to be reviewed soon

The rail services agreement between India and Nepal is to come up for a review shortly. The two-day meeting is to be held in Kathmandu towards this month-end, it is learnt.

The review is long overdue. It was to take place in early 2005, i.e., six months after the launch of the rail services between the two countries in July 2004. But that did not happen.

To step up throughput

The thrust of the discussion at the Kathmandu meeting will be how to step up throughput of Nepal's Birganj inland container depot, which is linked by rail to Kolkata port.

Though the rail services between the Birganj ICD and the Kolkata port started two years ago with much fanfare, the level of throughput leaves much to be desired. In the fist year of operation, (i.e., July 15, 2004 - July 14, 2005), the throughput was 5,651 TEUs.

The figure this year (July 15, 2005 -July 14, 2006) is estimated at around 9,800 TEUs.

Till now, it is 9,629 TEUs. The traffic forecast by RITES had estimated a throughput of 20,000 TEUs in the first year of operation with an annualgrowth of 10 per cent every year.

By that estimate, the throughput in 2005-06 should have been 22,000 TEUs. The Kathmandu meeting, therefore, is expected to discuss the issues that hinder the growth of traffic on the route.

Few identified factors

Some of the factors have already been identified. For example, the rail services between Birganj the ICD and the Kolkata port handle only the third country trade in containers, i.e., containerised imports and exports to and from Nepal in relation to countries other than India.

Which means, the services do not handle the bilateral trade, no matter whether in containers or in bulk. Also, the third country trade in containers is not handled by the services.

There are several other issues which remain to be sorted out.

The agreement provides that the trains will be interchanged between India and Nepal 24 hours and on all days of the week.

But that is not possible under the present situation. The border is closed after 10 p.m. and Customs facilities are not available round-the-clock. Next, the agreement allows movement of only a few types of wagons such as BCN, BCNA and BCX but not all types, particularly Box N or tank wagons or reefer containers.

Other issues

Then there are other problems such as imposition of VAT that makes the ICD operation expensive, idling of costly reach stacker, the need for integration of Customs procedures, deficiency in infrastructure design of the ICD and absence of force majeure clause. It is emphasised that all cargoes, both containerised and non-containerised, to and from Nepal passing through Raxaul (in north Bihar close to the Nepal border ) must be handled at the Birganj ICD.

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