The construction work of the integrated check post at the Sunauli-Bhairahawa border, which had been stalled for years, has finally started moving ahead.

On February 5, India completed the land acquisition process and handed over the contract to Indian contractor, KSM Bashir Mohammad and Sons, according to the Bhairahawa Customs Office.

The construction work was put on hold following land acquisition issues on the Indian side after the project agreement was signed in 2005. Nepal completed the land acquisition process more than a decade ago and was waiting for India to complete the process from its side.

Maniram Paudel, chief of the Bhairahawa Customs Office, said that the process to construct the Integrated Check Post has now officially begun.

“We have asked the Indian contractor to make necessary preparations for laying the foundation stone of the project within 10 days,” Paudel said.

The 35 hectares of land acquired in Nepal is owned by the Ministry of Urban Development.

The Indian government has roped in the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (RITES ) as a consultant for the construction of the integrated check post.

RITES is involved in the design and drawing, contractor selection, supervision and quality management of the project.

The Indian contractor has started building four warehouses to store its goods after clearing a temporary parking yard of the Bhairahawa Customs Office.

According to the agreement, Nepal will facilitate the procurement of construction materials such as stone, gravel, and sand among others as well as provide customs waiver on the goods and equipment required for construction on the Nepali side.

Paudel said that the list of goods and equipment needed for the project’s construction has been submitted to the customs for approval.

The Indian side submitted a detailed engineering report including design and drawing on September 15, 2017, for the construction of the integrated check post.

Out of the total 35 hectares of land on the Nepal side, 22.54 hectares will be used for the construction of buildings and warehouses for the integrated check post.

The new infrastructure will have customs, immigration, animal and plant quarantine, necessary parking for customs, laboratory, authorised barracks, security barracks, electricity substation, petrol pump, fire truck, two entrances, security wall, water tank, seed house, warehouse, bank, among others.

Tika Bahadur Thapa, engineer of the federal project implementation unit in Bhairahawa under the Ministry of Urban Development, said, “The Indian side will be in charge of the construction of physical infrastructure.”

With the objective of facilitating trade between Nepal and India by providing all services from one place under the one-window system, an agreement was made to build an integrated border check post at Biratnagar, Birgunj, Bhairawa and Nepalgunj border points with the financial and technical support from the Indian government.