(TibetanReview.net, Sep22’24) – Nepal is to open an immigration office at Korala in Upper Mustang, a bastion of Tibetan culture sharing border with Chinese ruled Tibet. Once an independent Tibetan kingdom, the region is now part of Nepal’s Gandaki province.
A 10-room prefabricated building has been constructed in front of China’s customs office for the use of immigration office and security check post, reported the kathmandupost.com Sep 22.
The District Administration Office in Mustang has said the plan is to operate the immigration office before Dashain, a major Hindu festival, which falls in the second week of October this year.
“Preparations to set up immigration office in the Korala border point are at the final stage,” Janak Raj Panta, chief district officer of Mustang, has said. “The immigration office building has already been connected with the national grid. Works are on to install internet service and set up other required devices.”
A dry port will be built in Korala and Nechung, located around 12 kilometres below the Nepal-Tibet border point.
The report said Chinese authorities had already constructed the necessary infrastructures on the Tibetan side of the Korala border point area, including the customs office, quarantine office, employee’s residence building, laboratory, warehouse, truck and container parking area and security check post.
Chinese authorities closed the border passes in Jan 2020 in the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic, which hugely affected the Nepalis living in the remote mountain villages close to Tibet, the report said. The Korala border point was eventually reopened in Nov 2023.
The border reopenings came as a huge relief to the large number of Nepali traders, seasonal workers and residents of several mountain districts. People of the settlements near the Chinese border had difficulties managing essential supplies as the markets in Tibet were closed to them, the report said.
These settlement residents and villagers are dependent on Tibet for essential goods as much of the rugged terrain is yet to be connected by Nepal’s national road network. Tibet is also the major market to sell their products ranging from medicinal herbs to farm animals, the report added.
China currently allows trade and transit through six border points—Tatopani-Khasa, Rasuwa-Kerung, Yari (Humla)-Purang, Olangchung Gola-Riwu, Kimathanka-Riwu and Nechung (Mustang)-Lizi—for bilateral trade with Nepal.
Korala is the fourth border point that Beijing has reopened after the Rasuwa-Kerung, Tatopani-Khasa and Yari (Humla)-Purang, which had remained closed since 2020 after the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Korala appears to be the best location for developing a port after Keyrung and Tatopani, which was severely impacted by the Gorkha Earthquake in 2015, the report said.
“All Nepalis can freely cross the border by taking an entry pass once the immigration office comes into operation in Korala,” Panta has said.