Industrialists say that the rail rack, which normally takes three to seven days to reach the Birgunj dry port from Kolkata and Visakhapatnam ports, now takes 10 to 25 days.
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Industrialists in the sector have complained that the industry is in crisis as rail transport of goods entering Nepal via major Indian ports has been severely disrupted for the past three months.
Industrialists say that the railway rack, which usually takes three to seven days to reach the Birgunj dry port from Kolkata and Visakhapatnam ports, now takes 10 to 25 days. They complain that as goods start getting stuck in this way, they are facing the double burden of raw material shortage, production disruption and cost increase.
Industrialists here complain that this problem is getting worse due to transportation delays due to the Indian Railway network giving priority to passenger trains, not providing sufficient racks to freight trains and weak administrative coordination in the border area.
In some cases, industrialists say that the railway rack has been stuck in Raxaul for many days even after reaching the Raxaul-Birgunj border. The Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry has written to the Secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies on Tuesday, demanding an immediate solution to this problem.
The letter signed by the association's president Hari Gautam states that it is taking an average of 15 to 25 days for a container loaded from Kolkata to reach Nepal. Goods that used to arrive in three to four days now have to wait for three weeks, and this has affected the production schedule, market supply and price stability of the industries.
The association has demanded high-level diplomatic coordination with the relevant bodies of the Indian government, including the Indian Railways. The association has also urged for a permanent mechanism to ensure that railway rakes loaded from Kolkata reach Birgunj within three to four days and from Visakhapatnam within 6 to 7 days.
About 80 percent of Nepal's total imports enter through the Birgunj border. A large part of them depends on the railway. In such a situation, the cement, steel, food processing, plastic, chemical, pharmaceutical and construction material industries have been affected the most due to the disruption of rail transport, says Madhav Rajpal, senior vice president of the association.
He says that this has increased production costs, may create artificial shortages in the market and ultimately the burden of price increases will be passed on to consumers. Rajpal says that although there is a provision to give priority to rail transport in the Nepal-India trade agreement, this problem is occurring because the implementation is weak in practice.
Railways are the cheapest, safest and most reliable means of transport for Nepal. But he said that this system is disorganized, which has created serious problems in Nepal's import-export structure. If effective initiatives are not taken in time, Nepali industries dependent on rail transport will fall into a deeper crisis and its impact will be seen in the overall economy.
Abhishek Mishra, operations in-charge of Pristine Valley, the company that operates the Birgunj Customs Sirsia Dry Port, claims that although there were problems in the Indian railway system two months ago, there is no such problem now, and therefore it is taking comparatively less time for freight trains to reach Birgunj from Kolkata and Visakhapatnam. He claims that since January, Indian Railways has improved its services, and now it takes only 8 days for a freight train to reach Birgunj from Kolkata and 10 days from Visakhapatnam.
