Thaindian News

Kathmandu, July 8 (IANS) Indian assistance worth over Rs.3,000 crore, meant to boost Nepal’s trade, economy and public welfare, faces obstruction in the Himalayan republic due to vested interests and the tendency to grab short-term profits at the expense of long-term gains, a senior Indian official said.

In a bid to nurture trade in Nepal and bring India’s transport, medical and educational facilities within quick access of the neighbouring country, the Indian government has pledged to build four integrated check posts (ICP) in Nepal, a network of roads running through 33 districts of Nepal and covering almost 1,500 km, and an 184 km broad-gauge track that would link the two countries by rail.

However, a visiting delegation headed by A.E. Ahmad, secretary (Border Management) in the home ministry, has found that protracted local protests over land acquisition is holding up the projects in Nepal.

As part of India’s plan to build 13 ICPs at key entry points on its international border with neighbouring countries for better trade and smoother traffic flow, India chose Nepal as the only one out of four - the others being Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar - which too would have four ICPs at corresponding Nepali border entry points built by India as a gift.

However, while the ICPs close to Bangladesh and Pakistan are progressing satisfactorily despite the occasional political friction, in Nepal there are long delays, stoked by groups with vested interests.

India is gifting Nepal four ICPs at Birgunj, Nepal’s key border trade town through which almost 80 percent of Nepal’s trade is conducted, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj and Bhairahawa.

However, though Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna laid the foundation of the Birgunj ICP in April, the nearly Rs.125 crore project was stalled for six months as locals, whose land had been acquired for it, kept up protests, seeking higher compensation.

“We had some trouble in India too,” said Ahmad, winding up his three-day visit to Nepal Friday, including an on-the-spot inspection in Birgunj and Biratnagar. “But in India, we are able to sort them out and already 20 percent of work at the corresponding Raxaul ICP has been completed.”

Ahmad says there is a lengthening gap between the status of the projects in India and Nepal. Unless both are completed and running around the same time, there is going to be a problem.

While the Raxaul ICP will be ready this year, Birgunj is estimated to be take till July 2012. The delay has added to the cost with the Birgunj ICP now requiring nearly Rs.125 crore while Raxaul ICP needs around Rs.85 crore.

“There projects are totally non-political,” Ahmad emphasised. “The ICPs are land ports, equipped with customs and immigration offices, food-testing laboratories and quarantine facilities. A truck of mangoes will not rot because of delay and a man taking his ill mother to hospital in Patna will not be stuck in a jam.”

However, the delegation felt that groups with vested interests were fomenting local protests to delay the projects.

“People would rather get Rs.10 now instead of realising that they might get Rs.100 if they wait a year,” he said. “And some people are exploiting this.”

The ICPs, he underlined, are short-term projects to be completed within 14
months.

However, even after they are ready in Nepal, the government may not be.

In India, once the work started, parliament passed the Land Port Authority of India legislation to provide for a regulating authority to manage the land ports. But in Nepal, with governments unable to stay in power for more than two years in recent times, the state has yet to start work on the management of the ICPs.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)