KATHMANDU, April 16: About 90 tons of explosives are being brought to Nepal from China for the construction of infrastructure projects. As the explosives used for infrastructure projects were not available from Nepali Army (NA) and India, they are being brought from China.
Since the raw material could not come from India, NA could not provide the explosive material on time. Despite being expensive, the traders said that they brought the explosives from China as it was necessary to carry out the works.
Earlier, the Government of Nepal had repeatedly requested the Government of India to provide explosives. However, after India ignored it, government officials said that they had to bring the material from China with the government's permission.
“We had requested India several times,” said an official of the Prime Minister's Office. He said that after India did not respond for a long time, permission was given to bring explosives from China as the construction of infrastructure projects in Nepal would be halted.
According to the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of Energy had requested the Indian Embassy to facilitate the sending of explosives several times. However, since India did not give any kind of response on this matter, it had to be brought from China. Brigadier General Krishna Prasad Bhandari, Spokesperson of the Nepali Army, also said that because the Nepali Army could not provide explosives for infrastructure and development, the traders are bringing them from China.
“Due to the shortage of raw materials, the production of explosives from the Sunachari Emulsion Plant of the Nepali Army has come down lately. The production could not be done according to the capacity, so the traders had to bring it from China. It is being brought to the approval of the government," said Brigadier General Bhandari.
Since mid-November 2019, the army has been producing 2,400 metric tons of explosives annually through the 'Sunachari Emulsion Plant'. However, this year, due to lack of raw materials, explosives were produced in a much lower quantity than the capacity, so it could not be given to the market for infrastructure construction purposes.
The Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN) has also approved of bringing the explosives. "Explosives brought from China have now arrived at customs," said IPPAN member Prakash Dulal.
India has informed that due to the Ukraine war, there is a shortage of explosives in the world market and the supply system related to defense production is being negatively affected, so it cannot send the raw materials immediately. However, officially, nothing was said by the government official. Explosives like ammonium nitrate, sodium nitrate and composite fuel are brought to Nepal.
Although the work of transporting, protecting and storing the explosives required for major projects in the country belongs to the army, the army has not been able to provide the explosives since the previous year. "It is the job of the army to supply the materials produced from Sunachari of Sundarijal to the big projects of the country and to produce the necessary explosives and to transport, protect and store them. The army has been providing explosives especially to the big power projects," said military spokesman Bhandari.
The army has been producing materials including granite which it needs. It is estimated that more than 6,000 tons of explosives will be consumed annually in Nepal's projects.
After NA itself started getting involved in development work and the demand for explosives through various construction companies started increasing, the army increased the production of explosives and commercialized the production.
The army through its welfare fund has invested more than 320 million rupees in explosives manufacturing plants. About 300 to 500 tons of explosives used to be imported from India monthly for construction.