Nepalgunj Integrated Check Post will improve flow of goods, services with India: Nepal Minister

Kathmandu [Nepal], November 13 : The Integrated Check Post being built in Nepalgunj will improve the flow of goods and services between India and Nepal and facilitate the flow of people between the two countries, said Krishna Gopal Shrestha, Nepal's Minister for Urban Development on Thursday.
Addressing the virtual ceremony in Nepalgunj, Gopal Shrestha said the ICT in Nepalgunj is a result of coordinated relations between the two countries.
"Nepalgunj (Integrated) Check Post is a result of a modernized form of customs and immigration of two closest neighbours. It also is the result of coordinated relations between India and Nepal which has gone in the long run and also acts as an example," Shrestha said.
The minister pinned his hope that Nepalgunj Check Post would benefit the country in various ways and solve the existing problems.
"It would help to reduce the traffic jam, pollution in the border areas, improve the working capacity of local officials and improve the flow of goods and services along with facilitating the flow of people in between two nations as well as tourists from others nations and we are confident that it would make easy for undertaking the customs and immigration," he added.
ICP at Nepalgunj, once completed, will have export and import cargo handling facilities such as warehousing, including refrigerated cargo facilities, medical, plant, and animal quarantine areas, amenities for drivers, and passengers.
The facility is envisaged to promote a systematic approach to cargo handling and, therefore, will result in saving of time and inconvenience to visitors and reduce overall transaction costs for cross-border trade and commerce.
Attending the online ceremony, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said that India has been acting on basis of "Neighborhood First Policy" and would continue working on it.
"India always has abided with the policy of 'neighborhood first' and Nepal being closest nation, I am fully confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and KP Sharma Oli's leadership it would deepen further and would be more stronger and more better," Goyal said.
He further mentioned that India-Nepal relations would strengthen further with the completion of ICP and its operation.
"Integrated Check Post which would be built in border crossing of Rupaidiya and Nepalgunj whose groundbreaking ceremony was held today, it would further strengthen our relations and would act as a means to increase trade between two nations. I am confident that this project to establish connectivity would be a catalyst to improve the relationship between the two nations and empower the trade between two countries," Goyal said.
"It would increase transparency, the procedures and processes while undergoing trade, border security, customs, and immigration would improve further and nothing would remain covered as everything would be transparent thus enhancing monitoring benefitting both nations," he added.
The tendered cost of the project is Rs 147.12 cr (NRs 2354 million) and the construction period is two years. The facility will be built on about 61.5 hectares of land.
A similar facility is being built on the Indian side in Rupaidiha by the Lands Ports Authority of India and the work on the facility started in May this year and over 10 per cent of construction work has been completed.
The Department of Urban Development, under the Ministry of Urban Development of Nepal, will facilitate the construction of ICP at Nepalgunj on the ground.