Ilam. The ‘Nepal-India Friendship Cold Storage’ at Ilam district headquarters has been lying unused for the last 14 years. The cold storage constructed at Sera of Ilam municipality-9 at a cost of crores of rupees has become unusable.

Deu Kumar Rai, a kibi farmer of Sandakpur rural municipality-3, complained that he could not store the produced kiwi as the cold storage was not operational. “We have to sell in the season, if we could sell in the off-season, the price would have been higher,” he said. He said that if the cold storage can be operated, the fruits and vegetables produced here will get good prices.

Due to lack of operation of cold storage, vegetables and fruits produced here have to be taken to Jhapa, Morang and other districts at expensive prices and stored. Umesh Chandra Mahat, a farmer of Ilam municipality-8, complained that selling his produce at a cheaper rate discourages agriculture.

Ilam Municipality has said that despite repeated efforts, the cold storage could not be brought into operation. According to the municipality, the construction of the 2 million kg cold storage could not be operated due to a design error.

Chief Administrative Officer Ganesh Kumar Khadka said that the operation could not be carried out as there was no structure according to the current technology. Chief Administrative Officer Khadka said, “The structure of our cold storage is not according to the current technology, it has been made to keep all kinds of goods in a single chamber.” ’

It has been pointed out the need to make the cold storage a ‘multi-chamber’ capable of storing various items at different temperatures to bring it into operation. It was constructed in 2068 BS at a cost of Rs 54.96 million.

The cold storage was constructed at a cost of Rs 43.9million from the Government of India, Rs 6.758 million from the Government of Nepal and Rs 4.3 million from Ilam Municipality.