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| Kathmandu, Saturday February 22, 2003 Falgun 10, 2059. |
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Railway agreement
The attention of the Embassy of India has been
drawn to your news reports, commentaries and editorials on the recently concluded official
level India-Nepal talks on (i) a Railway Agreement and (ii) Passenger Traffic Agreement.
Several of these reports, not based on facts and conclusions drawn, are misconceived and
misleading.
As stated by representatives of both the
countries, the talks on the Railway Agreement succeeded in arriving at mutually
satisfactory arrangements for the ICD operationalisation at Birgunj. This includes the
management of the terminal, simplified customs procedures and operation of rail services,
including the facility of a one-time-lock system.
The Railway Agreement has not yet been finalized
due to certain legal issues being raised, which require consultations with legal experts
on both sides. We are confident that these issues will also be resolved soon in a spirit
of friendship and mutual understanding.
It may be mentioned here that India has built a
rail link between Raxaul and Birgunj under a grant precisely to facilitate the ICD
operation. India’s approach all along has been to work out effective bilateral
arrangements for the smooth transit of goods through India to Nepal and for the movement
of bilateral trade between our two friendly neighbours. This is as much in the interests
of India as of Nepal.
As regards to the bilateral Passenger Traffic
Agreement, the Embassy of India wishes to clarify that conceding Nepal’s position,
the Indian side agreed not to include the movement of cargo vehicles in the new agreement.
Despite this, your reports have assumed that cargo vehicles are also part of negotiations.
As in the case of the Railway Agreement, here
too both sides have succeeded in reaching a consensus on a new set of arrangements for the
movement of passenger vehicles between the two countries, on a reciprocal basis. It is not
true that India has refused a Kathmandu-Patna or Kathmandu-Delhi link as reported in your
paper. The Indian side has only explained that these routes will require the approval of
state governments concerned in India and that procedures to obtain such approval is
already underway. There are some technical issues which remain to be resolved and efforts
are already underway to reach a satisfactory conclusion.
Sanjay Verma
Embassy of India, Kathmandu |
