The first generation of Indian transport entrepreneurs brought “modernisation and change” to Nepal in the 1960s, former Indian envoy to Nepal, Manjeev Singh Puri, said here on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Speaking at the launch of the biography titled Roads to the Valley on Sardar Pritam Singh, who is known as the “transport king of Nepal”, the former Indian Ambassador to Kathmandu, who played a vital role in stabilising relations between the two sides in the backdrop of the 2015-16 economic blockade imposed by Madhesi agitators, said Mr. Singh and his co-workers built “trust” for Indian people within the Nepalese society.
“Just think about it that Sardar Pritam Singh transported trucks across the mighty Ganga and its tributaries in 1959 on boats. You know what they did as a result? In the 1960s, they brought to Nepal modernisation. They brought about change in the country,” Mr. Puri said, praising the role of a handful of Sikh entrepreneurs who created Nepal’s first modern transport network under the Kathmandu-based Mr. Singh’s leadership.
The growth of Nepal’s transport sector was a particularly difficult part of the country’s evolution from a pre-modern to modern society as Nepal did not have an east-west road, which forced people living in the kingdom to take a detour through India, making even internal travel a costly affair.
