October 8: Vehicular movement in Birgunj has been affected by the public holidays. Birgunj is the country’s busiest trading border with the southern neighbor India.

 The public holiday for the third phase of the local level polls and for the recently concluded Dashain festival have resulted in huge queue of cargo trucks in the Nepal-India border. According to the local industrialists and the traders, the obstruction in the vehicular moment in Birgunj-Raxual has hit the business in the region.

Industrialists of Birgunj are facing many difficulties in trading commodities between the two countries, Om Prakash Sharma, president of Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industries (BCCI), said.

The vehicular moment was banned by the government for 72 hours during the local level polls for Province 2 on September 18. Likewise, the vehicular moment was also halted during Dashain, which has created big queue of cargo trucks in the border.

BCCI has been requesting Birgunj Customs Office, the local police and other authorities to solve the problem at the earliest. According to Madhav Rajpal, secretary at the BCCI, the cargo trucks are in huge number between Raxual yard of Indian Railways and the highway in Nepal. “The cargo trucks carrying raw materials and other commodities are stuck in the Indian side,” Rajpal said.

According to the traders, they are forced to pay huge amount fine as they have been unable to clear the goods on time.  “Domestic traders are hit hard by the obstruction in the vehicular moment. We have requested the concerned authorities to solve the problem at the earliest,” President Sharma said.

There is a 35-kilometer long queue of cargo trucks in between Raxual to Sugauli. There are around 3,500 cargo trucks in the queue, which have been carrying different commodities to Nepal from India and from other countries via the Indian land.