Govt, China to sign pact for dry port soon
KATHMANDU, MAY 2:
The government will sign the construction agreement for Larcha Dry Port with China next week.
“It was slated for this week,” said secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Lal Mani Joshi. “But the agreement signing process had to be postponed due to hurdles from locals, who have occupied the land after completing the land acquisition process. “They were compensated for their land earlier but they returned to reclaim the compensation,” he said, adding that the government will vacate the land within a week, before signing the agreement with China.
China had agreed to construct a dry port through a grant at Larcha to expand trade activities between the two countries. “China will hand over the dry port to Nepal after the construction is completed,” said Joshi, adding that the construction was supposed to start in January.
The Larcha Dry Port in Tatopani — some 110 km north of Kathmandu — on the Kodari Highway will facilitate the growing trade between the two countries.
The total construction cost has been estimated at around Rs 1 billion. “All the cost will be borne by the Chinese government and the cost of land acquisition has been borne by the Nepali government.
The dry port, which will be built in an area of 34 hectares, will accommodate a storage house, parking facility for 200 vehicles and a weighing machine that can weigh from 60 tonnes to 100 tonnes of goods at a time. There will also be a customs office along with a residential facility. The existing customs office has a capacity for only 60 containers.
The construction is expected to be completed in two years.
The government had acquired 11 hectares of land two and a half years back whereas the rest of the necessary land is owned by the customs office. The government spent Rs 600 million to acquire the land. Nepal and China had an agreement to establish the dry port in Tatopani four years back.
Two Chinese companies had done the detail project report. The government had also allocated Rs 500 million in fiscal year 2009/2010 for the construction of the dry port in Tatopani.
Source: THT
