Kathmandu, January 19
Three months after a Chinese delegation to Kathmandu gave its green signal to the Tibet-Kathmandu railway link, Nepal’s government is yet to make a formal request to Beijing to kickstart the project.
Officials from Nepal’s railway department say that the project has fallen out of favour with the government, which has been reduced to care-taker status after the elections. The department is waiting for the new government to take a concrete decision on the project. “Nepal is yet to formally request Beijing to start the project. We hope that the new government will take the process forward,” said senior divisional engineer and department spokesperson Prakash Bhakta Upadhyaya.
Sources say that substantial progress would have been achieved by now had the government been interested. Members of the bureaucracy and the public believe that Prime Minister-in-waiting KP Sharma Oli will reinvigorate the project after he assumes office in the months to come.
In November last year, a 23-member Chinese delegation led by China’s National Railway Administration’s Vice-minister Zheng Jian came to Kathmandu to conduct a preliminary study on the development of railway networks in Nepal. In its report to the administration, the delegation had given its green signal to the Kathmandu-Tibet railway line.
China’s Tibet region was connected to the national railway network in 2006. Nepal’s northern neighbour is now laying tracks to link Shigatse (Xigazê) to the national network. Chinese officials are also considering extending the line to Kyirong in Tibet, near the Rasuwagadhi border with Nepal. Informal discussions are underway to connect Kyirong with Kathmandu, Pokhara and Lumbini.
The Chinese delegation, in its report, had said that Nepal should expedite the expansion and upgradation of the highway to Rasuwagadhi and to remove hurdles related to the procurement of forest land for the project. However, the government has not taken any steps to address the issues.
