Home > News Archive > Nepal asks China to extend rail line to Kathmandu

Nepal asks China to extend rail line to Kathmandu

By Shirish B Pradhan | PTI

Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal gestures towards photographers as he leaves after his visit to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai on 21 August 2009. Nepal has asked China to extend the Beijing-Lhasa railway line to Kathmandu.File photo/Reuters/Punit Paranjpe/India

In a demand that may have strategic geopolitical implications for India, Nepal’s Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal has asked China to extend the Beijing-Lhasa railway line to Kathmandu.

“The economic ties between Nepal and China could be taken to a new height if the railway line that has reached upto Lhasa from mainland China could be extended upto Kathmandu, and economic infrastructure could be developed on the Himalayan transit points between Nepal and China,” Prime Minister Nepal noted.

The 1956 km long Qinghai-Tibet railway is a high altitude line that connects Xining in Qinghai to Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous region. This railway is the first to connect China proper with the remote Tibetan region.

Nepal is committed not to allow anti-China activity from its soil, the Prime Minister said.

Copyright © 2009 PTI

Published in PTI website