Nepal railway link pact likely during Oli’s China visit

Kathmandu, June 17 

Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s upcoming five-day visit to China, his first after re-election, will see the two countries sign a number of agreements, including one on energy cooperation and construction of a railway line connecting Kerung in Tibet to capital Kathmandu, a senior NCP leader said today.

Oli will be in China from June 19 to 24. During his visit, a host of projects under the Belt and Road Initiative as well as China’s plans for an India-Nepal-China economic corridor are expected to be discussed. The visit will further strengthen bilateral ties and promote cooperation between Nepal and China, said Ganesh Shah, member of Communist Party of Nepal Standing Committee.

Half a dozen MoUs will be signed between Nepal and China during the official visit to China by Oli, he said.  Nepal will sign an MoU on constructing a railway line connecting Kerung of Tibet to Kathmandu. A feasibility study will be conducted for the railway line, which is expected to complete within four years. An agreement will be signed for energy cooperation between the two countries, Shah said.

 An agreement will be made to form a permanent government to government mechanism between Nepal and China to look after different projects being constructed under Chinese assistance.

Oli, during his earlier brief tenure as premier in 2016, had widened China-Nepal ties by signing the transit trade treaty with China to reduce the dependence of his landlocked country on India at the height of the Madhesi agitation and had sought expansion of road links through Tibet besides extension of China’s railway network to Nepal through the Himalayas. However, since his re-election, he made his first foreign visit to India promising to follow a more balanced policy between India and China. — PTI