Birgunj, Jan. 15: With all the civil works of the dry port completed at Alahu in Birgunj, the contractor company—China Water and Electric Corporation- is now set to hand over the project to His Majesty’s Government by mid-February.

The foundation stone of the dry port was laid in march 1998.

The total construction cost of the project would be to the tune of Rs 730 million at the time of handover of the project, project director Purushottam Ojha told RSS here on Sunday.

The project strecthes over 38 hectares (57 Bigaha). The construction of the dry port was started with a total investment of Rs 770 million with the assistance of His Majesty’s Government and the World Bank.

The project completion, originally scheduled for March 2000, was delayed by ten months and the contractor had to pay a fine of Rs 30 million to His Majesty’s Government for the delay. The delay, it is said, is due to the use of old equipment and machinery and less manpower by the contractor company.

Besides, the company had been awarded the contract for construction of dry ports in Bhairahawa and Biratnagar also. The construction of the dry ports has been completed and the projects operational at Bhairahawa and Biratnagar.

Director Ojha also informed that works on the railway link from Birgunj to India had also been completed under the project.

He said separate warehouses had been constructed for three different types of operations under the project, which could be expanded to handle 40,000 trucks and containers each year.

It is learnt that the government of India has made an investment of approximately Rs 190 million on the rail link project and the railway services would be operated soon in the area.

Protective structures have been constructed at different points, colourful lights have been installed around and nearly one million saplings have been planted within the dry port for safety reasons.

Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Ram Krishna Tamrakar and Indian minister of state for railways Digvijay Singh jointly inaugurated the Raxaul-Birgunj Railway link at the dry port on July 11 last year.

Two large and four smaller bridges have also been constructed along the rail link, it is learnt from the project director.