Nepal-India agree to use wateryas up to three inland port

Kathmandu, Nov. 27

India has agreed to allow Nepal to use its inland waterways for the transportation of goods to and from the third countries via Kolkata Port.


A two-day meeting between Nepal and India on Review of the Transit Treaty that concluded on Wednesday agreed to allow Nepal to operate inland waterways from Kolkata Port to three different river ports near Nepal-India border – Shahebgunj in Jharkhand, Kalighat in West Bengal and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.


With the new agreement between the two countries, Nepal can operate its own ships up to these ports, said Navaraj Dhakal, Joint Secretary of Bilateral and Regional Trade Division at the Ministry Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS).


India has also agreed to allow Nepal to use three border entry points to carry cargo.

"This is a kind of a break-through in terms of inland waterways and diversification of transit facilities. It will help Nepal in foreign trade," said Dhakal.


However, Nepal has to use land route to Nepal to carry goods to and from Shahebgunj, Kalighat and Varanasi.


It will reduce Nepal's cost of trade which has been one of the major impediments in Nepal's international trade.


Likewise, the meeting agreed to open Dhamra port in Odhisa and Mundra port in Gujrat for Nepal for cargo movement. It has diversified Nepal's transit facilities.


Similarly, another agreement was reached to open Biratnagar-Jogbani and Bhairahawa-Sunauli border for bulk cargo movement via railway.


According to the MoICS, India is positive to implement transhipment facility to Nepal-bound cargo containers from the third countries with the Electronic Cargo Tracking System.


A nine-member Nepali delegation led by Dhakal and eight-member Indian delegation led by Joint-Secretary of the Commerce and Industry Ministry of India Bhupinder Singh Bhalla deliberated on various bilateral trade and transit issues in the meeting.


Nepal and India had signed the Transit Treaty in 1978. The treaty was renewed in 2013 although it has a provision to renew automatically. The two countries review the treaty to incorporate the latest issues and address the problems in bilateral trade.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 28 November 2019.