India, Nepal ink deal to spice up commerce by way of rail connectivity

India and Nepal on Thursday inked a deal to determine a direct rail connectivity alongside the Jogbani-Biratnagar rail hyperlink for containerised and bulk cargo, facilitating transport from the ports of Kolkata and Visakhapatnam to the Nepal Customs Yard cargo station situated in Morang District, close to Biratnagar.

Each nations exchanged Letter of Alternate (LoE) amending the protocol to the Treaty of Transit between India and Nepal on this regard.

“This signing will facilitate the motion of rail-based freight between Jogbani (India) and Biratnagar (Nepal), together with bulk cargo beneath an expanded definition,” the commerce ministry mentioned.
This liberalisation extends to key transit corridors — Kolkata-Jogbani, Kolkata- Nautanwa (Sunauli), and Visakhapatnam- Nautanwa (Sunauli), thereby strengthening multi-modal commerce connectivity between the 2 nations and Nepal's commerce with third nations, it mentioned.

The LoE change occurred right here throughout a bilateral assembly between Commerce and Business Minister Piyush Goyal and Nepal's Minister for Business, Commerce and Provides Anil Kumar Sinha.

The commerce ministry added that India stays Nepal's largest commerce and funding accomplice, accounting for a big share of its exterior commerce. “These new measures are anticipated to additional consolidate financial and industrial linkages between the 2 nations and past,” it mentioned.