Railway pact review meeting starts Thursday

After deferring for well over two years, technical officials from Nepal and Indian are finally convening in the capital on Thursday for a two-day review meeting of Bilateral Rail Service Agreement, through which Nepal hopes to get all forms of rail cargo services operated between all inland container depots and Indian ports through which the country moves third country cargoes.
“Agendas for the meeting have already been finalized. We hope to conclude the meeting successfully,” Naindra Kumar Upadhaya, joint secretary of the MoCS told Republica.
The continued deferral to review the agreement, which was due for 2009, has limited the operations of Nepal´s inland container depot (ICD) in Birgunj. Nepal Freight Forwarders Association (NEFFA) has claimed the delay has inflicted the country a loss of around Rs 7.3 million each day since more than two years.
The meeting would review the progresses made after the review meeting that was held last in New Delhi in 2009. It will mainly focus on performance of Container Corporation (Concur) of India while providing service to the Nepali traders.
Traders in recent years have been complaining that Concur has not been doing its jobs properly and this, in turn, has been compelling them to pay undue demurrage charges and bear other costs.
Many containers had stranded in Kolkata port just a couple of weeks ago due to the negligence of Concur - Indian government-owned container handler. “Concur´s service has turned problematic of late. We will request India to correct it,” said one of the government officials participating in the meeting.
Though Upadhyaya refused to elaborate further, sources said Nepali officials in the meeting would push India to either improve the service performance of Concur or allow private railway service providers to cater to the needs of Nepali traders.
The meeting would also seek India to open railway cargo services between all ICDs and Integrated Check Posts (ICPs) of Nepal and all the Indian ports through which Nepal is authorized to carry out third country trade. The existing railway agreement presently limits such services between Birgunj ICD and Kolkata and Haldiya ports only.
“We also have an agenda on free exchange of open and flat track wagons from and to any ICDs and ICPs,” said the source. So far, India has opened operations of closed railway cargoes only.
If this agenda is endorsed, it will pave the way for Nepal to operate railway cargoes between every ICDs and ICPs in Nepal and newly assigned Vishakapatnam port. It will also enable the country to trade with Bangladesh via train through Rohanpur-Singabad railway network.