Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board on Sunday signed an agreement with Tibet Fuli Construction Group Company Limited, a Chinese company, to construct the inland container depot at Timure of Rasuwa district. The facility, which will be built with Chinese aid, is expected to cost 124 million Yuan.

Harey Krishna Mishra, deputy director of the board and Yang Enlin, project manager of the Chinese company inked an agreement to effect. The project construction is expected to be completed in the next 30 months. Under the agreement, the Chinese government appointed company will construct the dry port on five hectares of land in Timure Rural Development Committee. The government has already acquired the land for the purpose. In the planned structure, a parking yard with capacity to park 350 trucks and containers will be constructed.

In addition, a five storey administrative building will be built in 5,000 sq m of land. The building will incorporate a fire fighting system, a quarantine office, a customs office, banks and post office. The dry port will house two customs clearance chambers built in an area of 2,080 sq m and a 750 sq m parking yard, cargo warehouse and litigation warehouse. The dry port will be situated at 2.5 km distance from the Nepal-China border. Nepal and China, in April 2015, signed memorandum of understanding to construct the dry port. The board in association with the Architectural Reconnaissance and Design Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region, a Chinese company, finalised the design of the dry port in 2016.

One the dry port comes into operation, it is expected to ease bilateral trade via land route. According to the board, it is also expected to reduce overhead costs, promote competitive transport services and open opportunities to private sector operators through their involvement in management and operation of the dry port. The dry port in Rasuwagadhi is the second of its type that the northern neighbour has been constructing for Nepal. The one at Tatopani is almost at the final stage and is expected to come online in the next month.

The importance of the Rasuwagadhi customs point as an alternative gateway to China was felt mainly when the Arniko Highway, linking the Chinese border further east, was cut off due to landslides and flooding of the Sunkoshi River in August 2014.