Chinese experts team arrives Nepal for detailed study of Kerung-Kathmandu railway

It may just be a coincident as just a day after Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ took oath of the Office of the Prime Minister, a Chinese experts team has arrived in Kathmandu to carry out the detailed feasibility study of the Nepal-China international railway.

Only yesterday, an 8-member cabinet was formed under the leadership of Dahal, chairman of the CPN-Maoist Centre. 

The Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu has confirmed that Chinese experts has come to Kathmandu to study and survey the feasibility of the Nepal-China international railway. They arrived in Nepal to conduct a detailed study of the Kathmandu-Kerung railway, the Embassy confirmed, adding that the team will study the geological features, tunneling, earthquake risk.

The Kerung-Kathmandu railway is one of the nine development projects proposed by Nepal with China to be constructed under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but has not moved forward due to Covid-19. However, none of the nine projects have gained momentum till date. The Kerung-Kathmandu Railway and 'Trans Himalayan Multi-Dimensional Connectivity Network' were also included in the joint statement issued after the Second Belt and Road Forum held in Beijing in April 2019, where President Bidya Devi Bhandari took part.

An agreement on the railway project was also reached during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal in October 2019. He had promised that China will help turn land-locked Nepal into a ‘land-linked country’ by boosting connectivity between the two countries. But the Covid-19 pandemic played a spoil sport. During Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's visit to Nepal last March, Nepal and China again signed an agreement on providing technical assistance for the feasibility study of the railway. He also promised to provide grants for feasibility studies of the cross-border railways.

Nepal and China had also held a discussion about the construction of a cross-border railway, in the second week of last August. In a bilateral meeting between foreign minister Narayan Khadka and his counterpart Wang Yi in Qingdao, Wang reiterated his commitment to grant funding for the railway's feasibility study. He even promised to send a team of Chinese experts. According to the agreement, the Chinese government agency China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA) has written a letter to the Finance Ministry too. The CIDCA, under the State Council of China, coordinates development projects and aid with other countries. 

However, there are lots of technical complications in construction of the cross-border railway including cost to bring a train from Shigatse in Tibet to Nepal through high mountains terrain and gorges. Though it is estimated that the construction cost per kilometre is about 200 million yuan ($29.68 million), the difficult geography including Himalayan terrain with high earthquake risks are considered major hurdles. But once constructed, the railway line is expected to shorten transit time by as much as three weeks to transport goods from cities such as Chongqing, Beijing or Shanghai, though, it is expected to cost at least $3 billion, too large a bill for Nepal to foot.

According to the senior divisional engineer and spokesperson at the Railway Department Aman Chitrakar, the feasibility study on the construction of the Kerung-Kathmandu railway will be expedited in collaboration with the visiting Chinese experts team. "The visiting team will carry out the detailed feasibility assessment of the project in coordination with the department."

According to a press note issued by the Chinese Embassy in Kathmandu. the railway line is an integral part of the BRI between China and Nepal. "China gives priority to Nepal’s aspiration and needs in this regard, and will proactively push ahead with the feasibility study with China aid fund," it reads, adding that the two countries will maintain close contact and coordination in jointly carrying out the work ahead with a view of building a trans-Himalayan multi-dimensional connectivity network.

Though, Nepal and China repeatedly agreed to carry out the feasibility study for the construction of a cross-border railway, the investment modality and technical aspects are yet to be agreed upon. Fearing to be debt-trapped, former Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba has also clarified that Nepal will construct the cross-border railway, if China constructs it under grant. "Nepal can not take loan to construct the cross border railway line, he has explained.

But once constructed, the railway is expected to bring Tibetan Autonomous Region of China and Nepal's capital Kathmandu much closer. China has already constructed Lhasa-Shigatse railway line on the Chinese side that will link Kerung. It is also expected that the Kerung line will ultimately extend to the Indian border, linking two Asian economic giants via Nepal.