Perishable items rot as vehicles idle at Nepal-India border

Fruit, bread and other perishable commodities have begun to go bad as vehicles carrying relief material to quake-hit Nepal wait at a clogged border crossing.

The better known route to the Himalayan nation from Uttar Pradesh is the Sunauli border near Gorakhpur.

The route is choked these days as hundreds of transport vehicles, light motor vehicles, state-owned buses from UP, Uttarakhand, Bihar and elsewhere wait in serpentine queues as they carry relief material.

This has led to delayed customs clearance, delay in passing on relief materials and also rotting of many perishable items like fruits, bread, milk and other commodities, rues a volunteer of the Apna Ghar Ashram, Jodhpur who said he preferred the Badhni-Krishnagar border to cut on "both time and security formalities".

Mahendra Yadav, head of the Armed Police Force (Customs Section) of Nepal at this outpost, told IANS: "Our customs clearance at Bhansar is completed in a jiffy as there is no maddening rush."

Earlier, when this correspondent was enroute to Kapilvastu, he gave a low down on the route ahead and the potential risks that the quake has left. "The route is long but the earth seems to be settling, hope you have a safe journey," he said warmly.

The customs check point officials said there was a steady increase in traffic from other posts as the Sunauli border is "completely choked".

Except for the bad roads in Etwa, which connects the India-Nepal border, travellers carrying relief material or ferrying people back from Kathmandu and other areas to safer places, aren't complaining.

Many Nepalese too are stoic.

"We are happy that India has come to our rescue. Had there been no help from you people, we shudder to think what would have happened," Dron Prasad Acharya, running an eatery near the check point, told IANS.

Six days after the deadly earthquake in Nepal that left over 6,000 people dead, this entry point district at the India-Nepal border is buzzing with activity.

It's busy these days as this route is "more convenient and less chaotic" to Kathmandu, the Nepal capital which bore the brunt of the quake.

(Mohit Dubey can be contacted at mohit.d@ians.in)