China has expedited the detailed feasibility study of the much-talked-about Kathmandu-Kerung inland railway. A technical team that came from China on December 27 has already visited Rasuwa and Nuwakot and started a detailed study.

After that, a technical team of 37 people from China came to Nepal and is working further on the study. According to sources in the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, the Chinese team is still in the field (proposed construction sites). Some technicians are working in Kathmandu and some are working in the field and collecting data for the detailed study. The technicians of the China Railway Survey and Design Group Company Limited of the Chinese government are engaged in the study in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Kathmandu and other areas.

The Department of Railway is providing land, forest and facts and data requested for by the Chinese side. An official of the ministry said that the department is also providing security, technical and manpower-related support to the Chinese team as requested by the Chinese officials in the field.

The Chinese technical team has said that they will prepare and submit a detailed feasibility report in the next three and a half years. The survey will be completed in the first one year, and surveying and mapping will be done after reaching the field within one and a half years. There is a schedule to finalize and submit the engineering study report within the next one year.

According to the railway department, the Chinese team has an office in Kathmandu. Camps will also be established for detailed studies and field work for future studies. China is conducting the study on its own.

According to the preliminary study report of the Kerung-Kathmandu railway handed over by China on December 10, 2018, the detailed study should have been completed by now, but the work has been delayed.

A memorandum of understanding for the DPRs of Kerung-Kathmandu, Kathmandu-Pokhara and Pokhara-Lumbini railways was signed during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Nepal in October 2019. For the implementation of that agreement, the meeting of Nepali and Chinese officials held in Kathmandu in the second week of November 2019 divided the work.

Due to the strict policy taken by the Chinese government to control the COVID-19 pandemic, the technical team could not come for a long time following the outbreak of the viral disease. After China lifted the zero-covid-19 policy and lifted travel restrictions, the work of this project has progressed according to the action plan.

As about 98 percent of the project work involves building tunnels and bridges in difficult terrains, it is definitely going to be expensive. Therefore, if the railway is built based on an economic benefit analysis, this project will connect Nepal to the ports of China through a railway.

After China completes the study, an agreement will have to be reached between Nepal and China over the modality of construction of the project and the solution to technical complications. Based on that, the issue of construction of the project will be decided.