Nepal floods delay integrated check post projects on border points

The devastating flood in Nepal’s Terai region and the adjoining North Bihar districts may lead to further delays and cost overruns in the implementation of the Integrated Check Posts (ICP) at Raxaul-Birgunj and Jogbani-Biratnagar border gates between India and Nepal.

While Land Ports Authority (LPAI), under the Home Ministry, is building the Indian side of the ICP, Nepal’s Ministry of external affairs (MEA) is implementing its side of the project.

LPAI completed the ICP at Raxaul (Bihar) in June 2016 and was waiting for the Birgunj (Nepal) facility to be ready to operationalise the facility.

Till two weeks ago, the Birgunj side was 88 per cent complete and hopes were high that the ICP will start operations soon. But the floods have put spoke in the project’s wheel.

According to reports, the ICP on either side of the border is inundated and the access roads are heavily damaged. The details of the damages will be known once the flood water recedes.

At Jogbani in Bihar, the Indian ICP is completed and operationalised. But construction of the Biratnagar facility in Nepal started only this year and the flood hit the region early this month.

Incidentally this ICP is proposed to be connected by an Indo-Nepal rail. The Indian Railways has already laid 90 per cent of the track facility. But lack of coordination between the two arms has led to mismatch in planning.

The rail yard is planned at a distance from the ICP, requiring duplication of the customs and warehousing facility. The Land Ports Authority had recently drawn the attention of the Railway Ministry in this regard.

Meanwhile, the first ICP with Myanmar at Moreh in Manipur is nearing completion and expected to be opened by the end of this fiscal. The government will also improve the 108-km national highway between Moreh and Imphal to boost trade.

It is, however, not clear how far such measures will boost trade as Myanmar has not yet begun setting up the requisite facilities at Tamu, on the other end of the Moreh border.

According to recent media reports from Myanmar, the country’s Deputy Commerce Minister U Aung Htoo said Myanmar is lukewarm to the idea of a “trading zone” at Tamu due to the low border-trade potential.

The Minister cited India’s delay in building the Trilateral Highway connecting Tamu to Mandalay and poor law and order in Manipur as reasons for the low trading potential through Moreh-Tamu border.

India now has a Land Customs Station (LCS) at the Moreh-Tamu (Myanmar) border, controlling 99 per cent of the border trade with Myanmar. According to Indian embassy in Myanmar, the border trade increased from $12.80 million in 2010-11 to $71.64 in 2015-16.

However, due to higher level of informal trade, the official border trade was barely 3.5 per cent of the total bilateral trade of $2 billion in 2015-16.

Indian sources claim that formal trade would increase with the creation of trade infrastructure. Also petroleum and petrochemicals industry in North Eastern India are keen to tap this route for exports to Myanmar.

Meanwhile there is progress in upgrading the Border Trade Centre at Suterkandi border outpost between Assam and Bangladesh into an ICP.

According to sources, 70 per cent of land required for the improved 25-acre facility has been acquired. The ICP is scheduled to open in 2018-19.

COMMENT NOW