Thaindian News

Kathmandu, Oct 7 (IANS) Frustrated by the continuous turbulence in Nepal’s Terai plains and threats by over 100 armed groups, Indian tobacco major ITC is seeking a backup for its tobacco factory where production can continue unhindered.
Twenty-three years ago, ITC set up its India-Nepal-Britain venture in Nepal, Surya Nepal Private Ltd, with a state of the art tobacco factory in Simra town on the India-Nepal border.

However, now Nepal’s largest private sector enterprise is planning to open a new factory in Tanahun district in central Nepal, away from the predatory armed underground groups of Terai.

“We have purchased the land and hope to construct a factory at the earliest,” said Ravi K.C., corporate general manager at Surya Nepal.

“We are building the new factory to ensure uninterrupted production.”

To be built on over 13 acres at Seratar, nearly 30 km from Pokhara airport, the new ITC factory may start a new trend of Indian joint ventures in Nepal shifting base from the Terai to the hills, where security is better.

According to Nepal’s home ministry, there are nearly 108 armed groups active in the Terai with most of them being criminal gangs living on extortion, kidnap and killings.

The Terai also witnesses the maximum shutdowns in Nepal as well as highway blockades.

Surya Nepal has a garments factory in the Terai as well.

KC said that the company has yet not decided whether it will shut down its Simra factory totally.

The market leader in Nepal, Surya Nepal manufactures 6,000 million cigarette sticks annually. With cigarettes and readymade garments, its total turnover is over $100 million.

One of the highest tax payers in Nepal, it pays an annual tax of about NRS 4,000 million.

Surya Nepal was hard-hit by the Maoist insurgency that lasted for 10 years and frequently targeted business houses with Indian and American investment.

Besides ITC, the other shareholders are Nepali individuals as well as British American Tobacco.