Himalayan Terminal, the operator of Birgunj’s Sirsiya Dry Port, has released chemical fertilisers imported by the Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC) and Salt Trading Corporation (STC).

The company had been holding up the fertilisers for a month demanding demurrage charges.

Animesh Kumar, chief of the company’s finance department, said the fertilisers were released after receiving an assurance letter from the Ministry of Agricultural Development on Wednesday to address the demurrage charge issues.

“The ministry has written not to hold up the fertilisers during the peak paddy transplantation season,” said Kumar.

As per the directives of the Parliamentary Agriculture and Water Resource Committee, the ministry wrote to the terminal to release the fertilisers. On Monday, the House Committee had directed the ministry to sort the things out within three days.

Himalayan Terminal has sought Rs260 million in demurrage charges for not timely clearing the fertilisers (20,000 tonnes of AIC and 2,600 tonnes of STC) which arrived at the dry port during last year’s Tarai unrest. It has also claimed Rs24 million in detention charges to be paid to the Indian Railway.

With the paddy plantation season in full swing, farmers have been complaining about chemical fertiliser shortages in many parts of the country.

AIC and Salt Trading have started to clear their fertilisers from the dry port. Rajendra Bahadur Karki, chief of the AIC regional office Birgunj, said the stranded fertiliser consignment would be cleared by two days. He said another consignment of DAP was loaded in Kolkata, India on Thursday.

“The fresh consignment will arrive at the dry port within 5-6 days.”