It is said to be the largest city
in Nepal after the capital, Kathmandu. It is also the city from where quite a
few of Nepal’s Prime Ministers have come. Biratnagar too is a commercial center
with an industrial corridor extending up to Itahari, which is a half hour away
by bus on the East West Highway that links the country from one end to another.
But, there is a difference between Biratnagar as a business center and other
commercial hubs of the country. The difference primarily being that Biratnagar
is also a political hotbed that has given birth to some notable politicians.
There are regular flights to
Biratnagar from Kathmandu, the flights lasting for some 45 minutes. By road,
it’s a long drawn affair as well as a tedious journey that will tire you out.
The city is practically the capital of eastern Nepal . The weather is at most
times hot and muggy, the lifestyle of its inhabitants, laidback and casual. The
latter, because, there are a lot of old fashioned feudal style zamindars in
Biratnagar, these zamindars holding large tracts of agricultural land in and
around the city. Their lifestyle is of course a reflection of their age-old way
of life, a life surrounded by servants and with lots of peasants tilling their
fields.
Biratnagar, like Birganj, the other
commercial hub of the country, has a sizeable Marwari population. Marwaris are
traditionally business oriented people originally from Rajasthan in India who
are making a substantial contribution to the country’s economy through their
many enterprises. Biratnagar is home to many Marwari icons, some of whom own
some of the largest commercial organizations in the country. Perhaps it is
fitting that Biratnagar has some of the richest Nepalis as well as some of the
most influential politicians, after all, money and politics are quite closely
interlinked.
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