The expert team for the feasibility study & survey of China-Nepal Cross-Border Railway arrive in Kathmandu. Twitter/@PRCSpoxNepal.
Kathmandu: Hours after Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda” was sworn in as Prime Minister of Nepal, a team of experts from China were sent to Kathmandu to conduct a feasibility study of Nepal-China cross-border railway line.
“(It was) an important implementation of our leaders’ consensus and a solid step forward to turn Nepal from a land-locked to a land-linked country,” spokesperson of Chinese Embassy in Nepal tweeted.
Chairman of the CPN (Maoist Centre) Pushpa Kamal Dahal aka Prachanda who administered the oath of office and secrecy on Monday (26 December) is known to be close to China.
Notably, China has been increasing its channels to foray into Nepal through various infrastructure ventures, including the trans-Himalayan connectivity projects, under Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Chinese expert team in Nepal
The Chinese technical team visiting Nepal includes six officials from the China Railway First Survey and Design Institute. They will be conducting feasibility study of the Kerung-Kathmandu railway which will be 72 kilometers long and survey of a proposed Nepal-China cross-border railway project under BRI.
As per reports in Nepali media, the Chinese side will carry out the feasibility under the Chinese grant that will cost around 180.47 million RMB or 3.5 billion Nepali rupees. It will reportedly take about 42 months to complete the feasibility study of the project.
The pre-feasibility study of the proposed railway line was carried out by the China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group in 2018.
Officials at the Department of Railway and China Railway First Survey and Design Institute Group will hold a meeting today to ascertain the modality as well as other details on how to go forward to carry out the feasibility study among others.
The 2018’s pre-feasibility study, highlighted complicated geological terrain and laborious engineering workload that could become the most significant obstacles in building a cross-border railway line linking the Chinese border town of Kerung with Kathmandu.
Reports say that engineers would build ramps along the northern and southern slopes leading to Lake Paiku, near Kerung, to connect the tracks to the Kathmandu section.
In the Nepal-China cross-border railway line project, the section with the longest and most steep grade is up to 95 km long out of 121 km. The study stated that continuous use of air braking system will cause serious abrasion of the brake shoe, tire overheating, and other potential operational dangers in the rail.
Nepal-China cross-border railway line
China, on Monday, extended wishes to Prachanda on his appointment as Nepal Prime Minister and said it would pursue the BRI with the land-locked nation.
A senior official at Nepal’s Department of Railway stated that the Chinese team’s visit was planned earlier and has no connection with the recent political developments in Nepal.
“As per Nepal’s request, China has agreed to provide grant assistance for the feasibility study of the railway,” he said.
Earlier this year, Nepal and China signed an agreement to utilise Chinese funds to support the feasibility study for the railway. During the meeting, Narayan Khadka, Nepal’s foreign minister and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi had agreed to build the “Trans-Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network”.
Nepal and China in 2017 signed the BRI agreement which is termed as a flagship project of Chinese President Xi Jinping. However, no project has been chosen by the Nepal side apart from cross-border railway line.
With inputs from agencies
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