{"id":20027503,"date":"2019-06-18T12:30:39","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T07:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=27503"},"modified":"2020-12-07T23:23:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T17:53:13","slug":"nepal-china-railway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/nepal-china-railway\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepal-China railway project: fantasy or reality?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tashi Sherpa runs the only teashop in Rasuwa Gadhi on the Nepal-China border, 170 kilometres north of the capital Kathmandu. About 50 metres away, a group of Chinese workers are busy building a bridge across the Nepal-China border, but none of them have ever come to her teashop.<\/p>\n

\u201cA truck brings food every few hours from that large building on the other side [of the border]. The Chinese do two things \u2013 eat and work. They eat a lot of meat,\u201d Sherpa said with a big smile.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of trucks and jeeps trundle down the bumpy road every day, over a temporary bridge, to carry goods and tourists from China. While they wait to enter Tibet or take passengers to Kathmandu the drivers sip tea and eat snacks in Tashi\u2019s teashop.<\/p>\n

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A truck prepares to enter into China at Nepal\u2019s border to Tibet in Rasuwa Ghadhi (Image: Nabin Baral)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nepal-China border<\/h2>\n

The Nepal-China border here only opened after the devastating Nepal earthquake in 2015 led to China closing the badly damaged Kodari route. It is also where the new railway \u2013 proposed as part of China\u2019s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)<\/a> \u2013 will enter Nepal from Tibet.<\/p>\n

China has built a well-equipped customs and immigration office, which looks like a shopping mall. But the infrastructure on the Nepalese side is a complete mess. In 2017, when visiting the area<\/a>, police officers were checking visitors in a hut with a zinc roof. Two years later, conditions have not improved. \u201cWe don\u2019t even have a metal detector, so we have to ask each person to open their luggage and backpacks, and then check manually. A railway is beyond our imagination,\u201d said Dilip Chhetri, the police inspector on duty at the border.<\/p>\n

Since tourists visiting Mount Kailash have started to flock through this land route, owners of newly built hotels are expecting more business in the future. The railway will be a further boost, they hope.<\/p>\n

The earthquake destroyed Nepal\u2019s local revenue office, but the construction of a multi-storey replacement has been delayed due to a dispute with the contracting company. \u201cHow can a country which hasn\u2019t managed to construct a building for its officers in two years construct tunnels through these mountains and run trains? It\u2019s no more than a fantasy,\u201d said Finjo Lopchan, owner of Potala guesthouse in Ghattekhola, one kilometre south of the border.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, my head spins when people talk about railways. Look at the roads here. Shameless government,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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A view of Rasuwa Gadhi from the Nepal side of the border<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

How near is Nepal\u2019s BRI railway?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The proposed BRI railway will link Kerung city in southern Tibet to Nepal\u2019s capital Kathmandu, entering the country in Rasuwa district and eventually going on to India. But locals have dubbed the project kagat ko rail<\/em> (paper railway) and sapana ko rail<\/em> (dream railway).<\/p>\n

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The Kerung-Kathmandu railway is part of more ambitious plans to link China and India by rail (Map source: The Conversation)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

People who have suffered for years along bumpy roads in the northern border region of the country laugh at the idea of the railway. \u201cI don\u2019t feel excited when you talk about railways, I feel disappointed. Every day we have to drive along this scary road in our trucks and we hear news time and again about railways. I don\u2019t understand,\u201d said Balaram Rimal, a truck driver who carries goods across the border from Kerung regularly.<\/p>\n

China prepared for Nepal a pre-feasibility study of the railway in late 2018. This report suggested it was an extremely hard project, but not impossible. \u201cTechnically this will be one of the world\u2019s toughest railways to construct\u201d, said Paribesh Parajuli, the only railway engineer at Nepal\u2019s railway department, who will leave once his short-term consultancy contract expires.<\/p>\n

The Chinese study has not been made public despite intense debate over what\u2019s happening. The report lists \u201csix extremes\u201d: including topography, weather, hydrology and tectonics that will make the project hugely challenging, said Parajuli, who shared the findings of the report.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/em>About 98% of the railway on the Nepal side of the Nepal-China border will be in tunnels and on bridges according to the report, with about five stopovers. Tracks will need to be built on steep terrain, as the railway climbs from an altitude of 1,400 metres in Kathmandu to about 4,000 metres in Tibet.<\/p>\n

 <\/em>The proposed route also cuts through the mountains near a major fault line \u2013 where the Indian plate meets the Eurasian plate to form the Himalayas \u2013 so the area is very susceptible to earthquakes.<\/p>\n

Mitigating these risks means the project will cost far more than normal railways, Parajuli explained.<\/p>\n