27 April 2008
China: rail link to Nepal via Tibet in 5 years
(Reuters) Nepali officials reported that China intends to extend the railway link from Tibet to Nepal's border in five years in order to boost trade and tourism. Ai Ping, director general of China's international department, met Nepali Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and told him that the rail link would bolster their diplomatic and trade ties, officials said. "They discussed the benefits of the project", Basanta Gautam, special secretary in Koirala's office, said. "The railway link should be complete in five years". The planned railway project would link Tibetan capital Lhasa with Khasa/Zhangmu, the last town before the Nepal border. "It will be an extension of the railway link between China and Tibet", Gautam said. After the completion of the Golmud-Lhasa section in Summer 2006, Nepali officials have engaged into what they see as a competition with India to become the ultimate destination of the railway. How advanced the planning for the further extension of the route is, is not known