Nepal Clears Indian Rail Project
Dated : 10 Dec 2020 (IST)
Raxaul railway station in Bihar on the India-Nepal border is the only Indian city that is connected across the border to Nepal at Birjung. Raxaul is Nepal’s gateway to India, as it connected by rail with New Delhi and Kolkata, providing a vast hinterland.
With the contest between India and China for strategic influence in the Himalayas having escalated, authorities in Nepal have now agreed to fast-track a rail connection from their capital Kathmandu to the Indian mainland.
After stalling for an extended period, the Nepalese authorities have permitted India’s Konkan Railway Corporation Limited to carry out a Detailed Project Report (DPR) to connect Kathmandu with Raxaul.
India’s initiative has strong security connotations. By connecting Nepal with India along tracks which are of a different gauge, New Delhi has prevented China to bring its railway, and in the worst-case scenario, its troops and equipment, close to the Indian border. Chinese rail tracks follow standard gauge, which are of 1,435 mm wide. On the contrary, Indian broad-gauge tracks have a width of 1,676 mm.
After striking a rough patch that included a territorial dispute and a cartographic clash, India-Nepal ties have improved following a string of high-profile visiting including a trip in October to Kathmandu by RAW Chief Samant Goel. The visit of General Manoj Mukund Naravane and foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla have now also paid a visit. Nepalese foreign minister Pradip Gyawali is now set to visit New Delhi to add concrete substance to the re-energised relationship.
