Kathmandu, February 10

The test of electronic cargo tracking system (ECTS) of goods transshipped from Visakhapatnam (Vizag) Port in India to Birgunj in Nepal has been a success.

The port will officially begin ferrying Nepal-bound goods from February 15.

The customs authorities had launched the GPS-based tracking tool last summer, which will cut down transshipment time incurred by Nepali importers to two weeks from the present twothree months, resulting in savings for Nepali traders.

Furthermore, cargo tampering will also be tackled since the containers will be electronically sealed.

Visakhapatnam Port has been declared as the second gateway port to export and import cargo with Nepal, the first being Kolkata-Haldia Port.

In June 2017, during Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s official visit to India, Nepal and India had signed a memorandum of intent to start the tracking system to ease transit of cargo by road and rail from Kolkata to four major customs points of Nepal — Kolkata-Birgunj via Raxaul, Kolkata-Sirsiya inland container depot via Raxaul, Kolkata-Biratnagar via Jogbani, and Kolkata-Bhairahawa via Sunauli corridors.

According to Director at the Department of Commerce, Supply and Consumer Protection, Purusottam Subedi, the goods arriving in Nepal via Visakhapatnam Port will be handed over to the rightful owner through the automatic system without them having to produce any papers unlike in the past.