Chandrakala Choudhury
New Delhi: To further strengthen people-to-people links, India and Nepal on Tuesday agreed to expedite the project proposals for the Ramayana Circuit. The matter came up during the official visit of Foreign Secretary of Nepal, Bharat Raj Paudyal, to New Delhi from 13 to 14 September at the invitation of India's Foreign Secretary, Vinay Kwatra. Nepal and India had long ago agreed to build the Ramayana Circuit to promote the Hindu religion. This is one of the 15 thematic circuits identified for development under the Swadesh Darshan scheme of the Ministry of Tourism of India and Nepal has come forward to take part in it.
The two Foreign Secretaries held a bilateral meeting on 13 September. The Foreign Secretaries reviewed the entire spectrum of bilateral cooperation between India and Nepal, including economic and commercial cooperation, enhancing connectivity, development, cooperation, trade, culture, and people-people relations, MEA said. They noted with appreciation the progress on many projects and initiatives announced during the recent visits of Prime Minister of Nepal, Sher Bahadur Deuba to India in April and Prime Minister of India to Lumbini, Nepal in May.
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Both sides also agreed to expeditiously implement the extension of the petroleum pipeline from Amlekhgunj to Chitwan and the construction of an LPG pipeline from Motihari to Chitwan. Recent progress in bilateral cooperation in the power sector including the export of power from Nepal to India was appreciated. It was also agreed that both sides will work to further strengthen such cooperation in keeping with the Joint Vision Statement on Power Sector Cooperation adopted during the visit of the PM of Nepal to India in April this year.
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Both sides welcomed the recent signing of the MoUs between NHPC (India) and IBN (Nepal) on the development of the West Seti and SR-6 projects. In terms of connectivity projects, the progress made in the operationalization of the Kurta-Bijalpura segment of the Jayanagar-Bardibas rail link and the Bathnaha-Nepal Custom Yard segment of the Jogbani-Biratnagar rail link, are significant steps in further strengthening the people-people links, was noted with satisfaction. The Nepali side appreciated the Covid-19 assistance provided by India during the pandemic and also thanked the Indian side for keeping the supply lines of trade open, even during the peak of the lockdown.
On Wednesday, Nepal Foreign Secretary is expected to call on the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi.
