Birgunj—Business as Usual

Birgunj is adjacent to Raxaul of Bihar (India). Once a typically rough border town, Birgunj has gone on to develop as the commercial hub of Nepal. It is often said that no business worth its name can do without having an office in this bustling business town. This is not to say that Birgunj has become totally free from the ills that accompany any border town that neighbors one of the more volatile regions of that country. However, on the whole, Birgunj and its inhabitants are more busy doing business than anything else thus leaving precious little time to worry about less productive things.

As the crow flies, Birgunj is very close to Kathmandu. Almost all domestic airlines have regular flights to Simara, some 20 km from Birgunj, and the flights are hardly of 20-minute duration. By road, it’s about a 300-kilometer drive, that is, roughly five hours by car. It’s more or less a pleasant journey with the Trishuli River accompanying you most of the way. You’ll probably see people rafting on this serene river which has nevertheless, been a watery grave for quite a few buses, trucks and other smaller vehicles that have had unfortunate accidents on the highway and tumbled over the edge.

                The old Tribhuvan Highway is another way you can reach Birgunj from Kathmandu; it might be in a dilapidated state but it is quite a bit shorter and you get to see some awesome sights since this road is a typical mountain road that climbs up and up before climbing down later. There’s still another shorter way to reach Birgunj from the Capital, but this road, which goes through the Kulekhani reservoir, is for those in a tearing hurry and with a strong heart.

The about 25 km. area between Pathalaiya (near Simara) and Birgunj is referred to as an industrial corridor with numerous factories and warehouses lining both sides of the road. Naturally enough, a lot of heavy vehicles ply this corridor and go onwards either to the rest of the country to deliver goods or to the border near Raxaul to carry in raw materials and other things like machineries and so forth.  Birgunj itself is quite a large and sprawling town with lots of hotels and shopping outlets. Lots of customers come from Bihar to do their shopping here and lots of Nepalis go across the border to Raxaul to do their shopping there!