Saibal Dasgupta,
The Times of India
December 3, 2013
China is picking major deals in Nepal based on its ability to provide concessional finance and get state-run contractors to implement projects. Recent moves include Kathmandu’s decision to buy four Chinese aircraft and offer contracts for building power transmission lines to Chinese companies.
Major investments in transport and infrastructure fields is bound to enhance China’s influence and reduce that of India in the Himalayan nation, which is located strategically between the two countries, observers said.
Nepal Airlines hopes to augment its capacity with the help of four new aircraft being bought from China, which is offering almost the entire amount of $34 million by way of grants and concessional loans.
China’s official Xinhua news agency reported from Kathmandu that Nepal’s finance ministry is working on plans to seek additional Chinese assistance for power transmission lines connecting the 750MW West Seti hydropower project.
“We will request for a grant or soft loan from the Chinese government to construct transmission line for the West Seti Project,” it quoted a senior official at Nepal’s finance ministry as saying.
If granted, it will be on top of Chinese assistance in the construction of the hydropower project. The Exim Bank of China has already agreed to offer soft and commercial loans worth $1.6 billion for it. CWE Investment, a subsidiary of China’s power developer Three Gorges Corporation, has taken up construction of the project.
“CWE Investment has asked the Nepalese government to take care of the resettlement issue on its own. So we are working towards this effect” Xinhua quoted Mukunda Poudel, joint secretary of the Investment Board of Nepal as saying.
China has also undertaken renovation and repairs of the Barhabise-Larcha section of the Araniko Highway.
