KOLKATA: India has woken up to Nepal’s need for cost-effective port services for transshipment of third country imports, mostly from China, and counter Beijing’s effort to promote rail-road trade route to the Himalayan Kingdom.
On Thursday, Somlal Subedi, Chief Secretary, Government of Nepal, will dispatch 16 containers of imported cargo from Vizag Port, that country’s second port-of-call after Kolkata, to Birgunj. So far, such operations were a monopoly of the Kolkata Port Trust. New Delhi has in the past offered Kathmandu the option of using the Vizag Port. But Nepalese importers say neither Kathmandu nor Concor — the joint venture operator of the Birgunj inland container depot (ICD) — showed much interest as the Railways cited lack of rake availability.