Overview
- Commerce ministers Piyush Goyal and Anil Kumar Sinha exchanged a Letter of Exchange in New Delhi on November 13 to amend the Protocol to the Treaty of Transit.
- The amendment authorises direct rail movement from Kolkata and Visakhapatnam ports to the Nepal Customs Yard in Morang via the Jogbani–Biratnagar link.
- Rail freight now covers containerised consignments and bulk cargo under an expanded definition.
- Liberalisation extends to the Kolkata–Jogbani, Kolkata–Nautanwa (Sunauli), and Visakhapatnam–Nautanwa (Sunauli) corridors, strengthening multimodal trade and Nepal’s third‑country access.
- Both governments also highlighted ongoing trade‑facilitation work, including Integrated Check Posts and other cross‑border infrastructure upgrades.