The convoy of trucks, stretching 4 km through a patch of jungle, started piling up after a massive landslide buried part of the Araniko Highway linking the Capital with the northern border.

As a result, warehouses in Khasa are overflowing with Chinese goods that Nepali traders have imported for the shopping spree that occurs during the country’s biggest festival. Traders said that the goods in the parked containers at the Tatopani Customs yard had been damaged by rain. They have also complained of pilferage.

On August 2, heavy rains caused a whole hillside to come crashing down on the highway at Jure, obliterating a 1.5 km section and damming up the Sunkoshi River leading to inundation in the adjoining areas.   

According to the Tatopani Customs Office, the blockage has so far resulted in losses of Rs 800 million in customs revenue to the government.

Kamal Kumar Shrestha, president of the Sindhupalchok Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that traders had incurred huge losses due to the halt in imports ahead of the Dashain festival. He added that many traders could be forced to abandon their business if the goods are not supplied on time.

Meanwhile, the Nepal Army and traders have been building alternative routes along both sides of the Sunkoshi River. “But the road is expected to be completed only by next week.”

Mimanshu Adhikari, chief of the Tatopani Customs Office, said that Chinese goods worth Rs 19.06

billion were imported through Khasa in the last fiscal year. Around 30-40 percent of the imports are shipped during the three months preceding Dashain.

“Goods are being stolen from the containers stranded on the jungle section whenever workers are absent,” said Buddha Ran Basnet, a trader.

Adhikari said that transactions during this time help the customs office to meet its annual revenue target. The customs office normally expects to collect revenue amounting to Rs 22.7 million daily during this period.

Nil Kantha Chaulagain, president of the Nepal Trans-Himalayan Commerce Association, said people were likely to face shortages of goods during this festival season and that prices would shoot up significantly. Around 80 percent of the goods for the Dashain festival are imported through Tatopani Customs.

Some traders have started rerouting their Chinese imports through the Kyirong-Rasuwagadhi highway directly to the north of Kathmandu, but bad road conditions

have made passage difficult, they said.