Qinghai-Tibet railway to reach Nepal in 2020

The 253-km railway line links Lhasa and Xigaze is officially put into use on Aug 15, 2014. [Photo/Xinhua]

China has announced that it will extend the Qinghai-Tibet railway to the border areas with Nepal within the next five years. The railway will stretch out for another 540 kilometers from Xigaze to Jilong county which sits on the border of China and Nepal.

The announcement was made earlier this month during Neapalese President Ram Baran Yadav's visit to China.

President Yadav applauded the announcement, saying that it fitted into the main aim of his visit which was to promote road and air traffic between Nepal and China.

Nepal has long been expecting that a new Tibetan railway which would extend to the border areas to boost bilateral trade and tourism between the two countries.

Nepal is an important transit point between China and South Asia, and a major chunk of the two countries' expanding trade has been conducted through Tibet. With this newly announced Xigaze-to-Jilong section of the railway in five years, better road and rail connections could be expected between Nepal and China.

Earlier in March when Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav at the 2015 Boao Forum for Asia in south China's Hainan province, the Nepalese President said that Nepal will support China's initiatives of jointly building the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-Century Maritime Silk Road as well as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, or AIIB, saying that these are great measures to promote regional connectivity.

Moreover, Nepal also calls for strengthened cooperation between the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, or SAARC, and China, in a bid to promote regional interconnectivity and economic development.