Companies based in the Morang-Sunsari Industrial Corridor have been forced to pay more than Rs1 billion in detention charges for cargo trucks stuck at the Indian border point due to the ongoing Tarai unrest and unofficial trade blockade by India.

According to industrialists, they have to pay Rs14,000 as detention charge per truck per day. They have been paying Rs14 million in detention charges daily.

More than 1,000 trucks and containers are stuck on the Indian side of the border. Traders and industrialists said that some of them had gone bankrupt as they have put up their homes and land as collateral to pay detention charges.

Bohora Group proprietor Avinash Bohora, whose 125 trucks remain stuck on the Indian side, claimed his company had paid detention charges totalling Rs20 million so far.

After Nepal-bound cargo is loaded at Kolkata port in India, no charges are levied for 14 days. From the 15th day, shippers have to pay detention charges ranging from $68 to $75 daily. According to Bohora, the daily detention charge for a truck amounts to Rs4,800 to Rs6,400.

If a trader fails to load Nepal-bound goods within 10 days after they are unloaded at Kolkata port, a land charge is levied, and the shipment has to be moved to the Container Forward Service.

Trucks have not been loading goods even after they have been transferred to the Container Forward Service due to the strike on the Nepali side and the blockade which forbids them from entering Nepal.

According to Bohora, the loading charge for freight bound for Biratnagar from Kolkata is IRs 2.20 per kg. However, transport entrepreneurs in India have not been loading goods even for IRs 4.50 to 4.50 per kg.

Meanwhile, a container carrying industrial raw material from Kolkata has not arrived in Biratnagar even after 75 days. “The goods have not arrived. However, importers have already paid detention charges amounting to more than Rs1 million for each truck,” said Nanda Kishore Rathi of Bagmati Industry Group.

The Morang-Sunsari Industrial Corridor contains more than 500 small and big factories.