Government decides to provide land for Rasuwagadhi dry port

KATHMANDU, June 23: The government has decided to provide 5 hectares of land for the construction of Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Timure of Rasuwa district.

Following the decision, the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) is preparing to sign project agreement with the Chinese government to develop the project, according to Jib Raj Koirala, joint secretary at MoCS. “The Chinese government has proposed to build ICD on turnkey basis. We are hopeful that they will start construction very soon.”

Nepal and China agreed in principle to construct ICD in Rasuwagadhi with the assistance of northern neighbor about a year ago. But the project got delayed after Nepal failed to arrange land for the project in time.

The Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation had initially refused to provide the proposed land, which lies inside the Langtang National Park, to ICD. Also the land was being used by Rasuwagadhi Hydropower Project.

But the cabinet meeting held a week ago finally paved the way for the construction of ICD near Nepal´s second largest customs points along the country´s northern border.

The cabinet has also directed MoCS to make the contractor liable for environmental impact assessment (EIA) study. It has also asked the ministry to direct the contract to build entry post and exit post for Langtang National Park and relocate the army camp in the project area to an appropriate place.

Moreover, the cabinet has also formed a monitoring committee for the project.

The committee, which is led by the chief of Central Regional Forest Directorate, has officers from the District Development Committee and District Treasury Controller Office as well as representative of the project as members. It has named representative of Langtang National Park as the member-secretary of the monitoring committee.

(Source: Republica)