With Madhesis, Indian-origin inhabitants of Nepal's Terai region, protesting division of their ancestral homeland in the new Constitution, their agitation close to the main trading point near Raxaul has halted supply of essential goods from India causing an acute shortage of fuel in Nepal.
Nepali officials have requested their Chinese counterparts for reopening the Tatopani-Khasa route -- the main inland trade route between the two countries, situated 110 km east of Kathmandu, that was damaged by the April 25 earthquake.
More than 100,000 litres of petroleum products out of 1.3 million litres donated by China have already arrived in Kathmandu.
The current "Indian embargo" and disruption of two main trade routes in the north as a result of the earthquake means that we need more routes that operate all year round, said Damodar Regmi, deputy director general at the Department of Customs, who led the Nepali team at the annual border customs meeting.
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The Chinese side was led by Deputy Director General of Lhasa Customs Office Long Chengwei.
Among them, Mustang and Larke have relatively better customs infrastructure, Regmi said.
"We will ask the Chinese side to gradually bring all the border points into operation for all 12 months based on their infrastructure status," he said.
During the 6th meeting of the Nepal-China Tibet Trade Facilitation Committee held in August, the two neighbours had agreed to develop infrastructure at the six existing border points and to initiate study for building three business roads from Chekamparand Larke in Gorkha, Lamabagar and Mugu to connect Tibet.