A Chinese team is currently in Nepal to conduct an extensive study and design of a highway that will connect Kathmandu with China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
The proposed highway, which is to be located in Rasuwa district, some 100km north of Kathmandu, will be 22km long and will link the Kathmandu-Syabrubesi road with a highway in Ji Long county in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
When completed, it will be the second important road link between the Himalayan kingdom and China. "It will help improve the local transportation conditions and accelerate economic development in Nepal," Xinhua news agency reported in Beijing. "It will also strengthen friendly exchanges, trade, tourism and mutual cooperation between the two neighbouring countries."
Funded by the Chinese government, the project was formally approved during then Chinese premier Zhu Rongji's visit to Nepal in May 2001.
The 19-member study team from the China Tibet Communications, Highway Survey and Design Institute arrived in Kathmandu on April 1 to start the three-month study and design of the highway project.
