KATHMANDU: Walking through the narrow Jogbani Main Road in Bihar, which connects the Biratnagar border gate of Nepal with NH 57, is an experience. Even pedestrians are caught in a jam here.
Biratnagar is home to nearly 400 manufacturing units and is the second largest industrial hub in Nepal after Birgunj.
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To ensure smooth movement of the cargo, the Nepalese government has invested in infrastructure, building roads, a walled customs quarantine zone and truck bays.
But the moment you cross over to the Indian side, the mayhem begins.
Cargo-laden trucks struggle to move through a bustling marketplace. There is no centralised cargo quarantine area. And, customs officials work from a dusty roadside kiosk.
Jogbani is not an isolated case on the 1,751-km-long boundary between India and landlocked Nepal, which does trade worth $4.2 billion with India and routes another $3 billion in third-country trade through India, offering the country’s logistics sector a handsome revenue opportunity.
A visit to the border gates makes one question India’s attitude to this huge trade potential.
Raxaul, which handles 70 per cent of the total traffic, has no roads. The 50-km stretch of NH28A from Motihari to Raxaul is simply not motorable.
Panitanki in West Bengal has good roads but the customs superintendent sits in a temporary shed on the wayside. As per a four-nation agreement, Nepal is scheduled to trade seamlessly through this gate with Bhutan and Bangladesh through India.
