A six-member team of technical experts arrived in Nepal on Tuesday for a feasibility study of the Nepal-China cross-border railway.
As per the letter sent by the Chinese side to the finance and foreign ministries of Nepal, the feasibility study involves aerial survey and mapping, geological survey and mapping, engineering studies and feasibility study report preparation.
“The expert team for the feasibility study & survey of China-Nepal Cross-Border Railway arrived today and (was) welcomed by Charge d’affaires Wang Xin, important implementation of our leaders’ consensus and a solid step forward to turn Nepal from a landlocked to a land-linked country,” Chinese embassy posted in its Twitter account.
The Chinese technical team will study the entire project in close coordination with the Department of Railways. The railway is one of the nine projects proposed by Nepal with China under the Belt and Road Initiative.
The cost of the feasibility study is estimated to be approximately NRs. 3.4 billion which will be funded by China. However, the two nations haven’t reached an agreement regarding the fund for the construction of the railway.
Earlier, a team of Chinese delegations had arrived in Nepal for a pre-feasibility study and to prepare a Detailed Project Report (DPR) which has estimated the total cost of the project will be more than $3 billion.
