The construction of Indian government funded integrated check post (ICP) at Budhanagar in Morang is expected to be completed before the stipulated project completion deadline, said project officials.

The project is expected to facilitate Nepal-India trade and transit. It has a completion deadline of December 26.

The project is being constructed by Dineshchandra R Agrawal Infracon of Ahmedabad, India since last one and a half years. “We have been expediting the works targeting to complete before the given deadline,” said Abdesh Prasad Sah, an engineer of the project. The project was affected by the August floods for at least three months. As of now, the project has achieved 40 percent of physical progress.

In 2005, Nepal and India had signed an agreement for the construction of ICPs in Birgunj, Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj on the Nepali side and in Raxaul, Jogbani, Sunauli and Rupedia on the Indian side to facilitate trade and transit movement between the two countries. As per the agreement, the Indian government will bear all the construction costs while Nepal will provide the land required for the projects.

In Morang, the government has handed over 169 bigas land which is 1,400 metre in length and 500 metre wide. The Indian company has been preparing to blacktop the access road to the ICP. The construction works in the Indian side has almost been completed. “The Indian side has only 10 percent works left,” said Sah. 

After the facility is constructed, it will be linked with broad-gauge railroad track from Jogbani. As 90 percent of the ICP in the Indian side has been completed, traders have started importing goods from Bathana in India. From Bathana to Kathari, Morang the railway distance would be 13.1 km.

However, work on the railway came to a halt after the Supreme Court issued an interim order in response to a petition filed by landowners that the compensation amount was inadequate.

Among the 565 landowners who collectively own 119 bighas of land in the path of the proposed railway line, 26 landholders have refused to accept payment arguing that it was too little. The government has so far distributed Rs530 million in compensation. The land was acquired at prices ranging from Rs90,000 to Rs2.5 million per kattha.