Title - Poor cargo facility keeps Indo-Pak trade on slow lane

Amritsar : It’s been decades since the rail cargo service has been operating between India and Pakistan. The facility, however, continues to suffer in terms of infrastructure. Rickety wagons are still used to import goods and the material that arrives has to be kept in the open due to lack of proper warehousing arrangements.A visit to the rail cargo facility at Amritsar railway station found that Indian traders have no option but to keep imported goods, including cement and other non-perishable goods, in a couple of sheds after unloading them from the wagons. There sheds were open from all sides with no boundary walls in place.Apart from this, there were huge potholes in the passage between these sheds, thus making it difficult for the vehicles, meant for lifting goods, to either tread or park properly in the area.All-India Cement Importers Association chief MPS Chatha said, “There are no proper godowns for storage of goods and we suffer losses of up to 25 to 30 per cent whenever it rains as the sheds are open to vagaries of weather.” He said the existing sheds were not even sufficient for storage. “At times, cement has to be unloaded on the platform, which too is half-covered,” he said. Chatha said though there were a couple of covered godowns for perishable goods, no such facility existed for non-perishable items. “We have taken up the matter with the authorities concerned on several occasions, but to no avail.”

Amritsar Exporters Chambers of Commerce vice-president Rajdeep Uppal said the cargo facility at the local railway station needed a complete overhaul from trading as well as security point of view. “The cargo area should not be open to all. Besides, there should be a proper warehousing facility that is accessible by proper roads,” he said.

Uppal said though there were three covered godowns for items like spices and dry dates, apart from open sheds, there still was a lot of scope for improvement.

A few days ago, Amritsar Member of Parliament (MP) Navjot Sidhu along with Divisional Railway Manager NC Goel and local traders visited the cargo facility and pointed out the inadequacies. Besides lack of infrastructure, the traders complained of leakage in the existing sheds. The visit came after Indian importers stopped cement import from Pakistan in view of heroin seizure in rail cargo arriving from the neighbouring nation. The cement import had still not been resumed as traders have been demanding measures like ultramodern scanners and sniffer dog squads, besides proper basic infrastructure.

Apart from lack of infrastructure on the Indian side, there were inadequacies on the part of Pakistan as well. The traders say the rail wagons of Pakistani trains were in a bad shape and importing goods in them in rainy reason was always a risky proposition. “Pakistani rail wagons need to be covered properly with tarpaulin sheets to ensure safety of goods,” they said.

Both the countries should initiate urgent measures to boost the bilateral trade through the rail route, they say. Goel said Sidhu had promised them funds from the MP Local Area development fund and they had prepared a proposal for improving infrastructure at the cargo facility, which they will soon be submitting before him. He said they had already plugged the leakage in sheds, besides taking care of cleanliness in the area.

Major hurdles

Rickety wagons continue to be used to import goods

The material that arrives has to be kept in the open

There are no proper warehousing arrangements

Traders have to make do with a couple of sheds

These sheds too are open from all sides