Nagarjuna leads race for India-Nepal border check post project

KATHMANDU - A joint venture between Indian construction major Nagarjuna Construction Company and Mumbai’s inter-border check post specialist KS Softnet Solutions is leading the race for a government of India-funded Rs.87 crore project on the India-Nepal border.

Out of six Indian companies who bid for the construction of the integrated check post (ICP) in Birgunj in south Nepal, the main hub of India-Nepal trade, the joint venture has emerged as the lowest bidder.

The office of Indian foreign secretary Nirupama Rao is expected to take the final decision within a week and construction on the project scheduled to start from July 5.

This is a top priority project to be followed by the upgradation of three more check posts on the India-Nepal border: at Biratnagar, Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj.

India and Nepal signed a memorandum of understanding in August 2005 to upgrade the four check posts as part of the Indian government’s initiative to overhaul a total of 13. Besides Nepal, seven lie on the Indo-Bangladesh border and one each on India’s border with Pakistan and Bhutan.

The work in Nepal was delayed due to the political instability with five governments falling in quick succession since 2005.

Nepal’s contribution to the ICPs is to provide land, electricity, telecommunication as well as security.

Kamal Raj Pandey, joint secretary at Nepal’s physical planning and infrastructure ministry, told IANS that Nepal had acquired 106 bigha of land for the Birgunj ICP.

The selected Indian company will have to execute the project within 14 months.

Pandey said Nepali Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal’s resignation, announced via a televised address to the nation Wednesday, would not affect the project.

Rail India technical and Economic Services (RITES), a Government of India undertaking, executed the detailed project report for the ICP and will also supervise the engineering work.

Pandey said work on the next ICP at Biratnagar will start in six months while RITES has been asked to execute DPRs for the Bhairahawa and Nepalgunj ICPs at the earliest.

Work on the Indian sides of the Birgunj and Biratnagar ICPs has already started.

Rajdeep Buildcon is executing the work at Raxaul in Bihar while SVEC Constructions has been given the Jogbani project.

(Sudeshna Sarkar can be contacted at sudeshna.s@ians.in)