Dry port overwhelmed by increased traffic

BIRGUNJ, APR 28 - Imported cargo destined for the Birgunj -based Inland Container Depot (ICD) are being diverted to other customs points due to delays in clearance, said Customs Chief Achyut Siwakoti.

Himalayan Terminal, which operates the dry port, attributed the hold-up to container traffic exceeding capacity. Chief Executive B Mohan said that 52,000 tonnes of goods were arriving at the ICD daily against its capacity to handle 30,000 tonnes.

The ICD was built at a cost of Rs 2 billion to facilitate export-import trade. Launched with the support of the World Bank, it went into service in 2004. The dry port is connected to Indian Railway. In the year it opened, it handled 81 Indian railway containers. As of April this fiscal year, container traffic had swelled 452 times.

The ICD is spread over 38 hectares. Its employees have said that the infrastructure needs to be expanded to accommodate the increased quantity of shipments.

When a freight train

with 40 wagons arrives at the ICD, 14 wagons have to be left outside the warehouse because it is too small. "It is true goods get wet in the rainy season," said Mohan. "The infrastructure needs to be improved to ensure better management."

Meanwhile, importers have also complained that they have to spend an extra Rs 50,000 to bring a container from Kolkata port to the ICD.

According to Himalayan Terminal, 20,674 containers arrived at the ICD in the last fiscal year, and importers had to spend Rs 1.33 billion more. This is because Nepal-bound containers from Kolkata

port do not get insurance coverage, and the importers themselves have to take the responsibility for them.

Ashok Temani, a member of the central executive committee of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said that traders were facing problems because Nepal is not recognised as a container

destination, and so shipping companies do not take the responsibility.

However, Sharad Bikram Rana, executive director of the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Committee, said that they had been able to put Nepal on the world map of container destinations, and that the government should work to gain recognition for it.