May 24: “Building the proposed Nepal-China cross-border railway is certainly not a cake walk owing to the hostile terrain. However, China is determined to move ahead with the construction work,” Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi said.
She came with such remarks while speaking at a press conference held in the capital on Thursday (May 23). The envoy stated that the very project, by its nature, cannot be completed in a short span of time. “This basically entails four phases- pre-feasibility study, feasibility study, design, and construction. Given that pre-feasibility study has been completed, we will now focus on feasibility study.”
According to her, the concerned departments are engaged in discussing a funding modality for the feasibility study, which demands huge investment. She also stated that after the results of feasibility study come out with the estimation of the project cost, the task of determining whether the railway project would be executed under the loan or grant modality would take place.
Ruling out the allegations from various quarters that the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative) projects create a “vicious debt trap” for some poor countries like Nepal, she said,” China has been providing them funds without imposing any harsh conditions or any furtive geopolitical agenda.”
Referring to the Protocol to the Trade and Transit Treaty that was formally exchanged between Nepal and India during recent China visit by President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Ambassador Hou said that her country has fully facilitated Nepal to use Chinese ports for its trade with a third country and the world.
