1.2b Assistance

India to provide Rs 1.2b assistance
BY GOPAL KHANAL
NEW DELHI, Oct 14 - India is providing an assistance of Rs 1.2 billion to Nepal to build unified, modern check posts along the Nepal-India border for cross-border management. A source at India's Foreign Ministry said the assistance is being extended to make check posts along the border more organized and better equipped.
India is also building such check posts at major customs points along its borders with Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar. India has allocated a total of IRs 8.5 billion for this. The building of unified check posts is expected to aid joint revenue collection, immigration checks, checking and verification of goods, and to assist bilateral trade.
"There is talk of building four such check posts (along Nepal-India border). The money has probably been allocated for building them," said acting Nepali Ambassador to India Tara Prasad Pokharel.
Under this plan, India is building 13 such check posts - seven along the Bangladesh border, four along the Nepal border and one each along Pakistan and Myanmar border. In the Nepal-India secretary level meeting on repatriation and mutual legal cooperation that took place in January 2005, the two sides had agreed to build such check posts.
Sources said the work was expedited after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stressed the need to develop border areas to boost trade in South Asia. Among the 13 check posts, the construction of four will start immediately, including the check post in Raxaul that will be upgraded within 15 months.