KATHMANDU, August 30: The Indian government is considering allowing Nepal to use two additional ports — Mundra Port in Gujarat and Dhamra Port in Odisha — by revising the bilateral transit treaty.
A news report in Indian media ‘The Print’ has stated that the Narendra Modi government has decided that it will now allow Nepal to export and import goods using these two strategic ports of India. The India-Nepal Inter-Governmental Committee (IGC) meeting, the bilateral mechanism for promotion of trade and investments — held in 2020, decided to amend the bilateral transit treaty.
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Being a landlocked country, Nepal relies heavily on India to conduct trade with third countries. Currently, Nepal has been carrying out its third countries trade via the Kolkata, Haldiya or Visakhapatnam ports in Andhra Pradesh.
Nepal has also been asking the southern neighbor to allow the use of these additional Indian sea ports as alternatives to the existing trade access to third countries. According to an official of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS), Dhamra in the Indian state of Odisha is modern and well-equipped as well as closer to the Nepal border compared to the Visakhapatnam port in Andhra Pradesh.
The distance from Raxaul at Nepal-India border to Visakhapatnam is 1,400 km while the distance to Dhamra is 1,000 km. The state-of-the-art facility at the Dhamra port, built by the private sector, is expected to ensure prompt clearance services to cargoes bound for Nepal.
Similarly, using the Mundra port in Gujarat will also be hugely beneficial for Nepal as the Indian government is building a freight corridor from Gujarat to Delhi, according to an MoICS source.
