New Delhi/Kathmandu, March 26 : Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba will embark on a three-day visit to India from April 1, on the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two leaders are to jointly inaugurate the cross-border Kurtha-Jayanagar railway line during the visit. This will be PM Deuba’s first bilateral visit abroad after becoming PM in July last year. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on April 2. Besides his official engagements, the Nepalese PM will also be visiting Varanasi. Sher Bahadur Deuba has visited India in each of his four earlier stints as PM. His most recent visit in his capacity as PM was in 2017.This visit is in the tradition of periodic high level exchanges between the two countries.It would give an opport ty to both sides to review the entire gamut of bilateral relations including development and economic partnership, trade, cooperation in health sector, power, connectivity, people to people links and other issues of mutual interest, said sources on Saturday. Deuba’s India visit comes immediately after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi concludes his three-day visit to Nepal, from March 25-27. The Nepalese PM was earlier scheduled to travel to India in January to participate in the Vibrant Gujarat summit in Gandhinagar, but the trip was cancelled due to rising Covid-19 cases. Deuba and Modi had met in Glasgow, Scotland in November last year on the sidelines of the UN climate conference.The 34.9km-long cross-border Jaynagar-Kurtha rail link connecting Jaynagar in Bihar to Kurtha in Nepal has been built with Indian assistance. It was handed over to the Nepal government in October last year. The railway link is expected to boost trade and commerce as well as people to people links between the two countries. The Jaynagar-Kurtha section is part of the 68.7km Jaynagar-Bijalpura-Bardidas rail link being built under the Government of India”s grant assistance of NPR 8.77 billion. The Nepalese government earlier this week reissued the railway ordinance for the operation of the cross-border railway line. A memorandum of understanding on rebuilding around 137 health posts with Indian financial assistance that Delhi had announced in the aftermath of the 2015 earthquakes is also likely during the visit. Deuba’s visit to India will be the first by a Nepali prime minister in almost four years. The then prime minister KP Oli had visited New Delhi in April 2018, two months after assuming office. RN
