Government of China provides a Rs2 billion grant for the construction of Kerung-Kathmandu rail link

Project narrative

On June 21, 2018, the governments of China and Nepal signed agreement on railway construction in the Himalayan nation. China and Nepal have agreed to build a railway connecting Tibet with Kathmandu. Both sides made a deal on conducting feasibility study of a railway line connecting the border town of Kerung to Nepali capital Kathmandu. The MoU was signed and China will bear the cost of the 121.480 km project. The Rail and road links are being built from Tibet to Nepal on top of the US$8.2 billion pledged at an investment summit in 2017. China government pledged to provide Rs2 billion grant for the railway construction. The Chinese railway authorities would conduct the pre-feasibility of the project within August 2018 and would start preparing the detailed project report by the next two years. The construction would be completed within five years. The Chinese side has communicated that its railway network will reach the area near the Nepal border by 2022. According to a report issued in 2019, Kathmandu Chinese railway officials said that the much-awaited detailed project report Kerung-Kathmandu cross-border railway will take a lot more time to materialise due to technical, engineering and geological reasons.