India pledged to boost fuel supplies

The deputy prime minister of fuel-starved Nepal said yesterday that Indian officials have assured him of increased supplies.

Kamal Thapa returned home yesterday after meeting in India with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Thapa said the Indian leaders promised that fuel trucks lined up at the crossing would be rerouted and that more fuel would be supplied through other border points to ease the shortage in Nepal.

"The Indian leaders have assured me that there will be no obstructions of the flow of trucks to Nepal from the points that are not blocked, fuel supply will be improved, and trucks that were stuck would be rerouted," Thapa told reporters at Kathmandu airport.

Ethnic Madhesi protesters in southern Nepal have been demonstrating against the makeup of states created by the country's new constitution by blocking a key border crossing with India, which supplies all of landlocked Nepal's fuel.

India, which has close cultural ties with the Madhesis, has expressed unhappiness over the constitution.

Protesters have blocked the main crossing point at Birgunj, where cargo trucks have been lined up for miles (kilometers) for weeks.