China Daily, the government newspaper of China reported on Thursday that planning is going on to link Nepal with China through a tunnel, as it comes under the rail project. Qomolangma, Tibetan word for tunnel, will be build under the Mount Everest.
Wang Mengshu, railway expert told China Daily, “The line will probably have to go through Qomolangma so that workers may have to dig some very long tunnels”.
The speed of the trains on the Nepal rail lines won’t be exceeding 120 km/hr as it will be difficult for the trains to run on these mountain terrains, and they are also experiencing high differences among the railway lines at one location from another.
Earlier China was planning to join Qinghai-Lhasa line with the border of Nepal without building a tunnel, this is the first time China has disclosed its intentions to make a tunnel.
If the sources are to believed, this whole exercise is undertaken to create a short cut for exploiting the huge Indian market in Nepal. China is also looking forward to convince Nepal for joining its Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) project as India has given a cold response for this project.
Wang also stated “If the proposal becomes a reality, bilateral trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost, along with tourism and people-to-people exchange.”
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi discussed this project with his Nepalese counterpart in December when he visited Kathmandu. A Tibetan official told China Daily that the project was started at the request of Kathmandu, is going to finish by 2020.
China has already reached Xigaze, a Tibetan city near to Nepalese border, by expanding its Lhasa line. Xigaze is Tibet’s second biggest city.
In order to increase its involvement among the neighbor countries of India, most probably a deal will be signed by China with Pakistan, in which China will be helping Pakistan in making natural gas pipeline which will go till Iran. The deal is expected to be finalized when Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Pakistan in near future.