Title - Wagon crunch hits export to Pak, Rs 200-cr goods stuck

Amritsar:
Indian exporters are a harried lot as goods worth around Rs 200 crore are awaiting export to Pakistan through the rail route at the cargo facility here due to non-availability of wagons.While the traders have been blaming the Railways, the latter argued “the matter was never brought to its notice”.Talking to The Tribune, leading exporter Rajesh Setia said, “For the last one month, the Railways has been sending 34 empty wagons from the Attari railway station to Pakistan as part of an interchange exercise. These could well have carried our goods.Setia said they had also demanded 20 wagons, instead of the present 14, in the Samjhauta Express. “Let alone increasing the number, the Railways decreased it to 12, leaving the traders high and dry.” He said they had got a mere 15 Pakistani wagons a couple of days back and 34 a week ago, but all were in a rickety condition.

He said they could not even shift trade to the road route as the items they had been exporting were not permitted through that medium. Among them are spices, grocery items, dyes, seed and clothes. He alleged the railway officials were neither attending their phone calls nor responding to their mails.

Flaying the "dictatorial attitude" of the Railways, he alleged it appeared least bothered about the bilateral trade.

Another prominent trader, Rajdeep Uppal, said the entire infrastructure at the rail cargo facility in Amritsar was in a shambles. He said ever since the India-Pakistan trade gained momentum, all agencies barring the Railways had contributed in one way or the other.

“There is absolutely no infrastructure. The godowns are in a mess while there aren't any roads. There are no security measures in place despite the fact that the rail cargo facility witnessed major drug recoveries last year that included 150-kg heroin,” he added.

Earlier, exporters Rajesh Setia, Mukesh Sindhwani, Rajdeep Uppal, Dalip Singh, Jaspal Singh and Bhupinder Singh held a meeting and demanded that 34 Indian wagons parked at Attari be provided for loading export cargo.

On the other hand, Divisional Railway Manager NC Goyal said the matter had never been brought to his notice. He also denied receiving any mail or phone call from the aggrieved traders.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that the exporters are facing such a trouble. In November last, goods worth Rs 600 crore were held up at the rail cargo facility as Pakistani traders had stopped cement export to India in view of repeated seizures of heroin. It had led to a decline in the arrival of rail wagons from the neighbouring nation while the availability of Indian wagons too was inadequate.