NATIONAL 6 -(Spotlight Weekly)]

From Lhasa With Food

Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) prepares to send second consignment of rice via Tibet

By KESHAB POUDEL

Encouraged by the successful transportation of rice to Mustang via the Tibetan autonomous region, the officials of NFC have already called for a tender for next consignments to Dolpa.

According to NFC, they could save some amount of money by dispatching the rice to northern Dolpa district via Tibetan road.

"By using the Chinese road, we can save a large amount of resources which we would otherwise have to use in airlifting the supplies," said Khil Bahadur Shrestha, Deputy General Manager of Nepal Food Corporation.

Although Nepalese Foreign Minister Chakra Prasad Bastola recently visited China, he did not raise the issue of using Tibetan road clearly before the Chinese officials. "We are using it in someway but we want to use it without interruption. We have to work out an institutionalized method," said Bastola (see Spotlight September 1-7).

After crossing the 632 kilometers of road across the Himalaya in Tibet, a consignment of Nepalese rice finally entered into Mustang last month. Ten days long route is tough as the road is rough and rugged.

"We have already sent 138 quintals of rice and are planning to send another 300 quintals to Lomanthang of Mustang," said a senior official at the NFC.

Nepal is planning to send more rice to Dolpa district via northern Tibetan road. According to NFC, it can save up to Rs 800,000 alone in supplying rice to Lomanthang via Kodari-Lomanthang road. Earlier, NFC used to spend Rs. 3,000 as airfare to transport each quintal of rice and now it can transport the same quantity of rice for just Rs. 1900 via road.

"We can save millions of rupees in transportation by using Tibetan roads," said senior official at NFC. "We are only a facilitator and transporters will handle everything including arranging the permits."

As the road in Tibet has to pass as high as 13,000 ft, a truck can only carry 50 quintals of rice. Actually it is a six days journey, but the bad condition of road and hostile weather made it take 10 days.

As the first consignment of rice has already been transported to Mustang, NFC has already published tender to carry another 500 metric tons of rice to northern part of Dolpa district.

The NFC has, however, dropped the idea to supply the food to Hilsa of Humla district from the same route following the reduction in the helicopter and airfare.

It is said that NFC is not the first party to use the road as other agencies have already used the road to carry construction materials to northern districts.

"If couple of other roads are linked to Tibet, the face of northern Nepal can be drastically changed," said MP Gorakha Bahadur Bogati, who represents Humla district. "We even found it cheaper to buy construction materials at Taklakot point in Tibet."

Despite many hindrances and difficulties to use the road in Chinese side, it is one of the easiest route to supply the essential commodities to the northern parts of Nepal bordering Tibet.

As Nepal is eyeing for more reliable and cheaper road to supply foodstuffs and other essential commodities to its northern parts, the Tibetan road across the Himalaya could be the best alternative.