NATIONAL 6 -(Spotlight Weekly)]

Costly Closure

Nepal’s only road link to the Tibet Autonomous Region of China has remained blocked for a month, leading to substantial revenue losses for the government

By A CORRESPONDENT

The customs point at Kodari has lost millions of rupees in revenue as the export-import business between Nepal and China is virtually at a standstill after the closure of the road link. However, officials are yet to take any significant step toward reopening the vital Kodari highway.

Kodari check-point : Busy route

As Minister of Physical Planning and Roads Chiranjibi Wagle is said to be busy with negotiations with the Maoists rebels, the ministry is yet to direct the Department of Roads to expedite work on reopening the highway.

The condition of sector linking Barabise and the border town of Kodari is in a particularly deplorable condition, as the government has not allocated sufficient resources for maintenance. After the construction of the Bhotekoshi power plant, the condition of road has deteriorated further. Nepal and China have an annual trade of about Rs 12 billion and Nepal imports over 80 percent of Chinese goods from Kodari.

Strategically very sensitive, the Kathmandu-Kodari highway has faced similar situations in the past. The government does not seem sensitive to need to upgrade the quality of road in order to facilitate Nepal’s trade with China.

As China is building a modern railroad into Tibet by 2005, Nepal may get another easy transit route to the sea via the northern border. The blockade of the Kodari highway also disturbed the transportation of the essential goods, including rice, to the northern Himalayan districts of Nepal. Last year, the government supplied more than 100 tons of rice to Humla, Mustang and Dolpa through the highway.

Because of the closure of the road, Nepal Food Corporation’s plan to send more food to the northern Himalayan districts before the onset of winter has been badly affected. "If the road remains closed, Nepal’s northern districts may have to face a severe shortage of foodstuff in the coming winter," says a senior official at the corporation.

As the road is pivotal to Nepal's economy, many people wonder why the Department of Roads is so slow in acting. Even with 100 trucks full of goods lying stranded, nobody in officialdom seems concerned about reopening the road.

China and Nepal have agreed to build another road linking Syaphrubeshi-Rasuwagadhi, but construction is yet to begin. At a time when the government has been unable to clear the debris on the existing road for a month, how quick it would move to construct 24 kilometers of the new road is open to question.