{"id":35091,"date":"2017-09-22T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-06-19T15:18:51","modified_gmt":"2020-06-19T15:18:51","slug":"10091-nepal-dreams-of-railway-linking-china-to-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/business\/10091-nepal-dreams-of-railway-linking-china-to-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Nepal dreams of railway linking China to India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kathmandu \u2013 At the border town of Rasuwa Ghadhi in Nepal, hundreds of trucks are waiting for the call to enter Tibet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The truck drivers, carrying goods between Kerung in Tibet and Nepal\u2019s capital Kathmandu, have no idea when that call will arrive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe let them cross the bridge if the Chinese ask us to do so, otherwise we stop them,\u201d says Dhruba Shrestha, an assistant officer with the Nepal Armed Police Force who is deployed on the border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rasuwa Ghadhi is currently the only route into Tibet from Nepal. After the earthquake in 2015, China decided to close the Kodari route<\/a> into Nepal and replace it with the mountain crossing at Rasuwa Ghadhi, but the infrastructure on the Nepal side is poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one except truck drivers with citizenship cards from Rasuwa, a district on the Nepal-China border, can enter Chinese territory through this point, unless they have a special visa from the Chinese Embassy, which is no easy task. Nepal\u2019s immigration office used to provide a one-day pass to Nepalis but this was halted a few months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than 100 metres from the small security post, with its zinc roof and sheet fence, Rasuwa Fort<\/a> lies silent. It was built by Jung Bahadur Rana, the former Prime Minister of Nepal who invaded Tibet in 1855. Just next to the fort, which was severely damaged by the earthquake, Nepal\u2019s revenue office also lies in ruins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This place has become an important exit for the Chinese government\u2019s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also known as One Belt, One Road (OBOR) and the New Silk Road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This particular stretch will connect Nepal with all of South Asia as well as Central Asia via the Qinghai-Tibet railway, which is just 500 kilometres away in Shigatse.<\/a> China is working to bring trains to Kerung<\/a> (also known as Gyirong\/Kyirong) by 2020, just 24 kilometres away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Rana Bahadur Lamichhane has been waiting at Rasuwa Ghadhi to enter Tibet for two weeks (Image: Nabin Baral)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gridlock<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been two weeks and I have been waiting to enter and hoping to get through today, if not tomorrow,\u201d says Rana Prasad Lamichhane, who owns and drives a truck. The wait has become a regular part of the journey since the Kodari border closed, leaving dissatisfied drivers with little to do but sit around and drink tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The local authorities are seriously frustrated by the Nepali government\u2019s lackadaisical attitude to managing the only exit to Tibet. One security officer uses every curse word in Nepali to express anger at the poor management of his government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLook, those Chinese across the border, how well managed they are, we don\u2019t even have a toilet, let alone other facilities,\u201d he says, speaking under the condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another security officer recently sustained a serious leg injury after a boulder rolled down from an earthquake-weakened cliff. Remains of the landslide are visible all around. There are even rumours that dead bodies remain trapped in the rubble. Tension here is building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"Trucks queue up in Timure, three kilometres from the Nepal-Tibet border to get clearance from Nepal\u2019s security force (Image: Nabin Baral)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepal\u2019s rail dream<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When Britain ruled India it established the first rail service in Nepal in 1927 on its south-eastern border to transport timber to India. After timber supplies diminished the railway began carrying passengers instead. This operation was shut down in 2014 though because of poor maintenance and profitability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the end of British rule there has been limited rail development beyond Nepal signing the Trans Asian Railway Network agreement in 2006, to build a railway<\/a> between Europe and China\u2019s Pacific ports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently the country has no functioning rail service. But on paper at least, there are big plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepal\u2019s new 20-year railway development plan<\/a> aims to build 4,000 kilometres of rail service, including tracks from the northern Tibetan plateau to the flood plains of the Ganga in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It includes plans for a new seven-storey building in Kathmandu where the government has recently set up a Railways Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Prakash Upadhyay, the department\u2019s spokesperson, \u201cWe are doing a detailed study of [an] east-west railway. Out of six rail linkage tracks provided by India, two will be in operation in southern Nepal probably next year. We have written to the Chinese government to select an appropriate company to study a Kathmandu to Kerung railway, which we are hoping to start soon.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a small, landlocked and mountainous country sandwiched between two giant economies, railways were never a government priority. But this changed when China extended its rail network through the tough terrains of Tibet to Shigatse, later announcing an extension to the railway to the Nepal-China border by 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf the Chinese say they\u2019ll do it, they do it. They will bring the rail to Kerung,\u201d says Santosh Nepal, a local truck driver in Rasuwa Ghadhi who frequently drives to Kerung. He has seen the work that the Chinese are doing and is impressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepali officials are also hopeful it\u2019ll happen. \u201cWe were too focused on roads in the past but linking northern mountains with the southern plains via rail is not an impossible task and we are confident that this will become reality soon,\u201d says Upadhyay, who adds that a service across the southern border is expected to open next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While railways on the northern border are on the horizon, lines on the southern border are scheduled to operate by next year. \u201cWe have been constructing new rail tracks in southern bordering area and it is very likely that the country will have [an] effective rail service by early next year,\u201d says Upadhyay with confidence. When finished the new track will link Kerung to Kathmandu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Nepal's<\/a>Nepal’s proposed railway network (Image: China Dialogue)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BRI yet to hit the ground in Nepal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Three kilometres from Rasuwa Ghadhi in Timure, a makeshift immigration office has been set up in a flat, granting Nepali visas for Chinese visitors on arrival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is huge prospect of tourism through this. Chinese are travelling to Nepal but our government lacks seriousness. I don\u2019t need to say anything as you have already seen the way we have been handling the border\u201d says Khub Raj Shrestha, the assistant immigration officer in Timure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A group of Chinese tourists enter the cramped room that\u2019s so small others must vacate to make space. According to Shrestha, about 1,300 Chinese tourists crossed the border in April alone but the rate will slow down in September ahead of the start of the monsoon season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While north-south connectivity and BRI may be all the rage in the capital, the Nepal government\u2019s snail-paced road maintenance works after the 2015 earthquake has left many locals sceptical of the government\u2019s ability to deliver.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if they are bringing rail, nobody tells us anything,\u201d says Norcho Gurung. She operates a small hotel on the first floor of her building where she rents the second floor to the government for use as the immigration office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, excavators can be seen crawling up the hill for road expansion work. The Nepali Army is working to open up the tough track from Betrawati to Syafrubeshi, along the Trishuli River, just 17 kilometres from the Chinese border.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The track is expected to be completed this year, or next year at the latest. This will be the section of the road that connects the Tibetan border in the north to the Prithvi highway that links Kathmandu to the southern part of the country and to India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken diplomacy, can trains fix it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf Nepal is connected by Chinese railway network, it can be linked with Europe by land route,\u201d tweeted Leela Mani Paudyal, Nepal\u2019s ambassador to China, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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if nepal is connected by Chinese railway network Nepal can be linked with europe by land route https:\/\/t.co\/70yufaiSvX<\/a><\/p>— Leela Mani Paudyal (@paudyallm) April 25, 2017<\/a><\/blockquote>