The Rasuwagadhi border point, built with an investment of nearly three billion rupees to boost trade with northern neighbor China, is now facing an existential crisis.
A flood on Tuesday morning at Rasuwagadhi swept away the Miteri Bridge connecting Nepal and China and caused extensive damage to customs infrastructure, leading to this situation.
Rabindra Pyakurel, a customs official working there, said that the physical infrastructure of the border point has "reverted to the state it was in 10 years ago."
The under-construction dry port, meant for storing goods imported from and exported to China via land routes, has suffered the most damage. Officials report that about 60 percent of the port's structures have either collapsed or been washed away by the flood.
According to Ashish Gajurel, executive director of the Nepal Intermodal Transport Development Board, which manages the dry port, 81 percent of the construction work at Rasuwagadhi's dry port had been completed, with plans to fully operationalize it by Falgun (February-March).
The dry port, being built with financial and technical assistance from the Chinese government, has a cost of 2.8 billion rupees.
Infrastructure including administrative buildings, internal roads, warehouses, a parking lot for 350 vehicles, retaining walls along the riverbank, and an open area for cargo inspection had already been completed.
After the flood, these structures have turned into debris. The flood has deposited massive boulders where the dry port once stood.
