BEIJING (TIP): Nepal is in talks with China to build a cross-border rail link that may cost up to $8 billion, and funding could be expected after Nepal formally signed up to Beijing’s Belt and Road initiative, a Nepali finance ministry official said on May 14.

Yug Raj Pandey, an under-secretary at Nepal’s ministry of finance, told Reuters the proposed 550 kilometre-long railway would connect China’s western Tibet region to Nepal’s capital of Kathmandu and will carry goods and passengers.

The Himalayan nation officially signed an agreement two days ago to be part of President Xi Jinping’s ambitious plan to build a new Silk Road, he said on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing.

“Now we are a member of (the initiative) we can get some specific project assistance from China’s government. We expect it for the railway,” he said. “Once we connect by railway then we can increase our trade and invite more tourists to Nepal.”

Pandey said the two countries had been in discussions for the past five months about the project, which could cost $7-8 billion and take up to eight years to complete.

He said Nepal planned to start preparing a detailed project report for the railway, and that they had yet to decide how much funding they will seek from China.

The railway will travel over 400 kilometres in China to the Nepal border, and then about another 150 kilometres from the Nepali border to Kathmandu, he said.

(Reuters)