Pristine Valley bags contract to operate Birgunj ICD

 Pristine Valley Dryport Pvt Ltd has been awarded the contract to manage and operate the Inland Clearance Depot (ICD) at Sirsiya in Birgunj district. Since the inception, the port has been managed and handled by Indian government entity CONCOR through its local counterpart Himalayan Terminals Pvt Ltd. The new management has taken over the operation and management of the dryport at the special function organised within the port premises at Sirsiya in Birgunj today.

“In the 16 years of establishment and operation of the dryport, the management of the dry port has been transferred to a fully private venture for the first time, according to director of Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board – the regulatory authority of Dryports in Nepal – HM Shahi.

“We are hopeful that the trade will benefit with this new development that has taken place in Nepal’s only rail linked terminal which handles more than 50 per cent of containerised traffic of the country,” he said.

Birgunj Inland Dry Port was constructed between 2000 and 2004 AD, and came into operation to facilitate trade. Established in 38 hectares property, the port has the storage capacity to manage over 4,500 containers and is rail linked with Raxaul in India connecting to harbours in Kolkata and Vishakapatnam via Indian Railways network.

Indian stakeholder of Pristine Valley Dry Port, ‘Pristine Mega Logistics Pvt Ltd’ and its network is managing ICDs in Ludhiana, Kanpur, Siliguri and Patna in India through its own 35 Container railways. The company has over 10 years for intensive experience in managing and handling ICDs in india and have entered the International market for the first time, according to a press note of the company. Nepali counterpart ‘Valley Terminals’ is a sister company of ‘Valley Group’, which works in the logistic sector, the press note reads, adding that Valley group – established 40 years ago – is a business conglomerate with diversified business including in poultry and related products, fast food, automobile, construction material manufacture, Information Technology (IT), and Infrastructure.

The directors of the Terminal Management Company, Pristine Valley Dryport Private Limited Rajnish Kumar and Baburaja Rawal mentioned that they want to use this venture to bring transformation and change in customer experience through efficiency upgradation and capacity building at the dryport. 

“The management transfer occurred during the pandemic of ‘Covid 19’ and the company will face piles of challenges with no definite date for this pandemic to end in upcoming days,” director of the Nepali counterpart company of the venture Madhav Baral said, adding that the port is only handling 35 per cent of its total capacity since the wide spread of Coronavirus, further down trend on export and import will continue. “The group will work on expansion of the port by attracting the road networked imports and export to the dry port and improving the existing in-country transportation services.”

The Management Team also mentioned that they are confident to implement Pristine’s experience and knowledge in Birgunj ICD to enhance the services and to expand the existing capacity of the port and that the venture will take a new height in the upcoming days.

Concor to lose monopoly on India-Nepal cargo movement

Container Corporation of India (Concor) is going to lose its monopoly of being the only player to move container trains between India and Nepal after the revision of India-Nepal Rail Service Agreement (RSA).
The recent revision of RSA has allowed the private players to move the containers between India and Nepal that has been monopoly of Concor since last fifteen years.
Kathmandu-New Delhi agreed to allow private container train operators – to carry goods including food, clothes, building material, cement, furniture, wood, crockery and cutlery to Nepal – after the revision of the RSA on June 5 and 6 talks in New Delhi.
In 2004, when the RSA was finalised, Concor was the only container train operator but in 2006-07, Indian Railways opened up the market, allowing other operators to run container trains, and giving Nepal also the option. Many a companies – including those backed by Adani Group, Port of Singapore Authority and Dubai Port World – have shown interest on ferrying to and fro Nepal.
Nepal traders and India’s Association of Container Train Operators (ACTO) both had long sought the opening up of the route for all operators but the RSA revision has been a long due.
The entry of new players will not only introduce competition for Concor but also force it to lower freight charges, making the imports cheaper to Nepal, the traders said, adding that Indian Railways has but earlier resisted moves to open up the route to private Indian container train operators.
The monthly traffic between India and Nepal comprises 13 to 14 container trains each way.

RSA revision to allow private Indian railway ferry good to Nepal

Nepal and India will revisit a decade-and-a-half-old Rail Service Agreement (RSA) that is expected to allow private Indian railways to ferry goods to Nepal.
The two-day bilateral meeting to start from tomorrow in New Delhi will discuss around a dozen of issues including RSA, as the decade old agreement could not address the issues related to bilateral trade on the current times.
The joint secretary-level talks between the two countries will also review transit pact that will allow Nepal to use Indian sea ports closer to major customs points of western and far-western Nepal –Bhairahawa, Nepalgunj and Dhangadi – for third-country trade. Ferrying Nepal-bound freight via inland waterways will also be included in the transit treaty, according to the Nepali officials visiting New Delhi to take part in the meeting. “The Delhi meeting will discuss the extension of the service of containerised and bulk cargo, ways of utilising the extension of the Janakpur-Jaynagar railway for transit and railway links both metre and broad gauge.
With the increase in trade and transit with third countries, Nepali traders have been demanding an extension of railway services in all the trading points across Nepal but the 2004 RSA includes only the railway transit facility from Kolkata to Birgunj. The traders have also been requesting to extend the bulk cargo facility to other important transit points between Nepal and India.
According to joint secretary at the Ministry of Industries, Commerce and Supplies, who is leading the Nepali side, Nawaraj Dhakal, “Nepal is compelled to bring all the commodities imported from third countries via Kolkata to Visakhapatnam Port through Birgunj in the absence of bulk cargo facilities in other transit points.”
Nepal and India – last year in Kathmandu during the BIMSTEC summit – also held talks about the signing of the Letter of Exchange (LoE) regarding bulk cargo during the BIMSTEC summit in Kathmandu but failed to do so in the last minute.
“The talks in Delhi tomorrow will also focus on permitting Indian private rail operators to transport Nepal-bound cargo from Visakhapatnam and Kolkata ports to Nepal,” he said, adding that the bilateral meeting will focus on opening of other integrated check points like Bhairahawa, Biratnagar, Nepalgunj and Janakpur and giving access to Nepali and Indian railway companies to transport Nepal-bound cargo.
“Nepali traders are paying more money to CONCOR, as it has monopoly in transporting cargo services to Nepal,” according to Nepali traders, who have also been demanding to extend this facility to other transit points because it is increasing the cost of raw materials and decline in the competitiveness of domestic products.
At present, state-owned CONCOR has the monopoly in transporting Nepal-bound cargo. “But Indian private railway companies have pledged to provide their service at around 25 per cent to 30 per cent cheaper rate compared to CONCOR, if given the opportunity,” according to the traders. The amendment of RSA will pave the way for operationalisation of private railways to ferry Nepal-bound cargo from Indian ports to respective Nepali inland clearance depots.
“There is also a possibility of discussion on the implementation of an Electronic Cargo Tracking (ECT) System, which is currently in a testing phase,” Dhakal said, adding that there may also be talks on extending this system to other transit points.
Nepal and India had signed the RSA in 2004, which is obsolete. Though an extensive evaluation of the agreement had come time and again, Nepal and India held only two meetings – in 2009 and 2012 – since the signing of the agreement, but they could not come out with any conclusion.
Apart from RSA, both the countries will also discuss on amending Trade Treaty and Transit Treaty between the two countries on a reciprocal basis.
The Indian side has however requested extension of Export Import (EXIM) code for Indian nationals trading with businesses in Nepal and expressed concerns over protection of intellectual property of Indian products. The Indian side has also requested Nepal to remove duties and related charges on import of agricultural commodities from India.

Nepal-India second rail route for box movement to be ready by this fiscal year end

If everything proceeds as planned, the second railway route to facilitate container movement between Nepal and India should be ready for operation in the current fiscal itself.

The first route between Raxaul in India and Birganj in Nepal has been in operation for the past several years.

The work on the construction on railway line on the six-km stretch between Bathna in India and Biratnagar in Nepal via Jogbani in India is progressing. Once the work is over, a new protocol will be signed between the two countries to kick off the movement.

Earlier, a similar protocol was signed to facilitate Raxaul-Birganj movement.

Currently, an estimated 8,000 containers pass through the Jogbani-Biratnagar border, all by road.

Container Corporation of India (Concor), which will operate the proposed container service by rail, hopes to secure at least 50 per cent of the throughput.

Jogbani, the last Indian town on the border, is already connected by rail. It has a railway goods shed and also land Customs facilities.

Biratnagar is located right across the border. However, the rail link to Biratnagar will take off not from Jogbani but from Bathna, the station located a few kilo metre before Jogbani , for operational convenience. The Railways, it is learnt, has agreed to provide some land at Jogbani to Concor to facilitate its operation.

Meanwhile, the construction of the integrated check-post on the Raxaul-Birganj border is nearing completion.

The indication is that once ready, its operation will be left to Concor.

The commissioning of the check-post, which will offer Customs facilities for goods and passenger traffic by road, will be complete with warehousing and other facilities to boost flow of traffic on the route between the two countries.

Right now, an estimated 18,300 containers travel by train annually through the Raxaul-Birganj border, representing 72 per cent of the total throughput on the route.

In 2011-12, Concor handled 20 rakes a month on an average through the Raxaul-Birganj route, posting a growth of about five per cent over the previous year.