In border towns unaffected by the blockade, visitors report increased road activity, with locals using motorcycles and jeeps to ferry petrol from the Indian side. “Despite a number of army checkpoints, these vehicles pass easily,” says Dambar Krishna Shrestha, a journalist who recently visited Thori village in Parsa district, bordering Bikhana in India. “As much as two lakh litres of petrol are transferred between towns on a daily basis,” he says. The going rate for petrol ranges from 350 Nepali rupees (thrice the normal rate) to NPR 500 per litre in the illegal markets in the hill-towns. Similarly, an LPG (cooking gas) cylinder, also in short supply, is available in the black market for NPR 6,500 to NPR 10,000 (almost 10 times higher).
