In Bhairahawa, collecting fees for parking on the road, obstruction at the customs checkpoint

Annapurna Terminals Pvt Ltd, a private company contracted to manage the parking and warehouse owned by the Bhairahawa Customs Office, has been using the highway itself for the collection of tolls at the Bhairahawa Customs Complex for more than a year.

Due to the continuous parking of heavily loaded vehicles on the road, not only has the traffic operation been obstructed, the road has also collapsed. The road division office Butwal said that parking on the road is causing inconvenience to the traffic and damage to the road. He has also been corresponding frequently. But concerned bodies have not shown interest in implementing .

'There has been a problem in managing traffic at the border post around Bhairahawa customs because cargo vehicles are not parked on the highway,' said Bajir Bisht, Chief Police Inspector of the District Traffic Police Office Rupandehi.

According to him, loaded vehicles are parked in two-three lines on the highway. Pedestrians traveling between India and Nepal, Indian tourists coming to Nepal with their own vehicles, tourists from third countries, long-distance buses running between India and Nepal, long-distance buses within Nepal departing from Belhia-Bhairawa, local buses leaving every three minutes, and traffic management problems at the border crossing. Added is .

Annapurna Terminals has taken a contract for 684 million rupees for five years from August 2079 to use the parking and warehouse owned by the Bhairahawa Customs Office and to manage sanitation and communication in the Customs Office. Its contract is made by the Inter Model Transport Development Committee under the Ministry of Commerce.

After the construction of the integrated check post (ICP) started on the land owned by the Bhairahawa customs office with a parking lot, Annapurna Terminals started using the 6-lane Belhia-Butwal commercial road in front of the customs and the road leading to the special economic zone from the customs. However, he has not paid attention to managing his parking by renting private land connected to the road in the customs area. To save the additional expenses of renting private land for parking management, he arranged parking on the street.

Sunauli/Bhairawa crossing is an important international border crossing where most tourists from third countries enter Nepal through the Sthal route. Passenger traffic between Nepal and India is also mostly through this route. Parking on the street in front of the customs often leads to traffic jams. Ordinary travelers and tourists have been suffering.

Especially, they come to Nepal by loading the imported goods on racks to the nearest Indian railway station in big and long trucks . Upon entering Nepal, after entering the customs, Annapurna Terminals collects the parking fee in advance from the vehicle according to the load and size of the vehicle, and takes the vehicle out of the customs for parking until it passes the customs check.

Long and big trucks of iron blades imported from India, tankers of petroleum products, long trucks carrying potatoes, onions, salt, rice, gas bullets, coal, and machinery equipment are parked on the road . Trucks transporting cement, clinker, blocks, tiles and bricks exported from Nepal to India have been parked on the road until the customs process is completed without entering the customs and collecting fees.

Annapurna Terminals Pvt. Ltd. deploys its staff on duty to check any cargo vehicle parked on the road without paying the parking fee.

Maheshwar Lamsal, engineer and information officer of road division office Butwal, said that when the cargo vehicle was parked on the highway in front of the Bhairahawa Customs, the road was damaged by the load and even after repeated written correspondence to the concerned authorities asking them not to park like that, they did not show any interest. .

'The road has collapsed due to overloaded parking in that area . The issue of parking on the highway has created a lot of tension,' Lamsal said, 'It has been more than one and a half years since they replied that parking was done outside for some time.' The customs officials had written a letter stating that the cargo truck container has been parked on the highway for a long time and due to the constant load, the road is being damaged day by day and road traffic has also been obstructed. This notice was given to District Administration Office Ruppandehi and District Traffic Police Office Ruppandehi.

After there was no hearing about the said letter, the said office again sent a warning letter on May 1, 2080, drawing the attention of the previous letter saying that the vehicle was not allowed to park there. Corresponding to the Development Committee, as the parking was not removed, it was requested to arrange parking at a suitable place.

Lamsal said that even after so many correspondences and repeated verbal talks at the meetings held at the Customs and District Administration Offices, the encroachment on the road for parking has not been removed. "Now which agency will we correspond with?" he said.

A representative of the civil society says that it is a mystery that a private contractor company blocks the traffic on the international border for its own benefit and that the administration, police, customs and other agencies remain silent on this matter.

'Since the regulatory and concerned agencies have not taken any action on this issue, it can be easily assumed that they are not only silent, but indirectly supporting the contractor company,' said Vijay Gobind Shrestha, a civic leader of the Bhairahawa area, 'Annapurna Terminals is using the public to earn its benefits. No right to use the property . Nor does any agency have the right to allow him to operate the highway in such a way as to obstruct traffic.' Shrestha said that if parking owned by the Customs is not available, Shrestha should rent the land of a private person and collect the parking fee.

Acting President of the Federation of Customs Agents Nepal and a local resident, Dr. Shantkumar Sharma, said that since the ICP is being built in the parking area of ​​the customs, even if there is a situation where parking is required outside the customs premises, it is not possible to park on the road. The contractor company should find an alternative road and manage the parking. But the fee cannot be collected by parking on the road,'' said Sharma, "There should be uninterrupted movement of ordinary passengers, tourists and vehicles at the international border.''

The number of cargo vehicles parked on the highway is not always the same. When there is a lot of traffic, there is a queue of double vehicles up to a distance of about 800 meters from the customs on the 6-lane road. Even when the traffic is low, there is always a queue of double freight vehicles for a distance of 2-300 meters in front of the customs.

Narad Gautam, head of Bhairahawa Customs Office, said that during the construction of the Integrated Customs Checkpoint, the parking lot of Bhairahawa Customs Office is insufficient, so only the vehicles transporting limited goods will be stopped on the highway for a few moments. Instead, he accused the police of keeping loaded vehicles on the highway for security checks and taking action against overloading. "An important infrastructure like ICP is being prepared for the long-term solution of the parking problem," said Gautam, "how will the infrastructure be prepared if someone is to be inconvenienced during the preparation of this kind of infrastructure?" Claimed . According to him, the distance from Dasgaja border to 400 meters along with the highway is in the customs area. More than 350 cargo vehicles enter Bhairahawa Customs daily. About 125 cargo vehicles are exported. Customs has only one yard (parking area) that can accommodate 250 cargo vehicles.

Engineer Lamsal of the road division office Butwal refuted his claim that the highway area around the customs area is also under the jurisdiction of the road department. 'We are building the customs structure during the expansion of the highway in that area,' said Lamsal, 'and how does the highway come under the jurisdiction of the customs?' is . About 500 meters of road in that area has collapsed due to parking of overloaded cargo vehicles.

Annapurna Terminals has been collecting parking fee for 24 hours at the rate of 259 per truck, 718 for container trailer, 778 for 40 feet trailer, 778 for LP gas bullet, 259 for tanker, 259 for bus  ; Parking for more than 24 hours will incur additional charges.

Managing Director of Annapurna Terminals Pvt. Ltd. Subhash Subedi said that it is not a desire but a compulsion to park cargo vehicles on the highway. He said, "After a meeting of all concerned bodies to decide where to arrange parking until the construction of the ICP, it was decided that some road areas will be declared a customs area. "After a year, this problem of cargo vehicle parking will be solved He said that while trying to manage the special economic zone near the customs, no vacant land was found and private land was not available for parking in the surrounding area.