Addressing at the event, Oli urged the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board (NITDB) to ensure that the project implementation will be a sustainable and reliable solution for the country’s trade movement.

“Since this project is of great importance, regular inspection and evaluation of the project will be conducted. With optimum effort on the government’s side, I hope this project will be an exemplary one,” says Oli.

Speaking on the occasion, Finance Minister Yuba Raj Khatiwada and Commerce & Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav expressed hope that dry ports and related infrastructure will facilitate businesses and transportation business of the country.

The dry port is expected to bring in a relief for easy movement of goods and services in and out of the Kathmandu Valley, upon the implementation of the Kathmandu-Tarai Expressway to be completed in 19 months.

The port is being built in around 11.77 hectares of land and is getting USD 22 million fund assistance from the World Bank.

The new dry port is part of the Nepal-India Regional Trade and Transport Project.

The complete port setup includes fully-equipped warehouses, administrative buildings for customs, quarantine, parking lots, bank and other facilities required for customs clearance, along with the office of NITDB.

The port holds capacity to accommodate 626 20-feet containers and 205 trucks in its parking lots, loading and unloading facilities and 6 warehouses.

Considering the current trade scenario, the new depot has been designed to fulfil the traffic flow until 2039.

NITDB is also ready with a master plan for the development of the International Exhibition Venue along with ICD in 1,054 ropani of land owned by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies in Chobhar.

Hope the new developments will add to the government’s plans to boost Nepal’s trade while addressing the existing concerns.

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As the reports say, the government has recently drafted a new law for immediate implementation of mega infrastructure projects at an investment of more than Rs 25 billion.

The PMO has already forwarded the bill to relevant ministries and is planning to table the same in the Parliament in the third week of November 2018.

The draft law envisions ‘corporate model’ in project implementation and open competition in hiring core personnel required for the project.

“This provision ensures that no project faces difficulties due to staff transfers. This is to facilitate easy recruitment of officials,” says OPMCM Secretary Kedar Bahadur Adhikari.

The new law is going to bring a transformation in the project implementation procedures. It allows project initiation only after financial assurance and successful completion of pre-feasibility study.

“This is to ensure that only the projects whose necessary preparations have been completed will go for implementation, unlike the present practice where the majority of the projects are first announced by the annual budget and preparations follow,” adds Adhikari.

Projects under the new law cannot follow the Public Procurement Act (except for a few major provisions in the PPA) and bidding process, depending on implementation modality.

Whereas, technologically-complex and high-value projects, with no financial support either from government or private sector, can go for direct negotiation with the concerned parties after government’s approval.

“The major thrust of this law is that no project should face difficulties due to issues related to inter-agency coordination,” says Adhikari.

The new law doesn’t apply for existing projects other than the national priority projects that are yet to take off.

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