Kathmandu, February 23

The fifth bilateral Line of Credit (LoC) review meeting between the governments of Nepal and India was held on Tuesday and Wednesday, in Kathmandu. The meeting reviewed the progress made on the projects under the LoC facility ($100 million and $250 million under LoC- I and II, respectively) extended by the government of India to the government of Nepal, through EXIM Bank of India.

Various projects which have been approved for implementation as well as the projects for which preparation of Detailed Project Reports are under process by the Nepali government, under Line of Credit for $550 million (LoC-III), were also discussed during the meeting.

Under LOC-III, the Indian government has approved inclusion of 16 road projects including the Mahakali bridge.  The road projects are to be developed by consolidating the packages of 11 road packages and one bridge project since it was desirable to keep a smaller number of packages to attract quality contractors.

Both sides also discussed the modalities for implementation of the Line of Credit for $750 million pledged by India for post-earthquake reconstruction of Nepal, which is now ready for operationalisation.

The meeting agreed on expediting the Rahughat Hydroelectric, Koshi Corridor, Solu Corridor and Modi-Lekhnath transmission line projects. Similarly, capacity development of National Reconstruction Authority and other official agencies by way of familiarisation programmes for LoCs will also be designed and implemented. The meeting also agreed to set up monitoring teams to meet on a quarterly basis to ensure better monitoring and speedy implementation of the projects.

The Indian delegation was led by Jit Gupte, joint secretary, Development Partnership

Administration, Ministry of External Affairs and the Nepali delegation was led by Baikuntha Aryal, joint secretary, International Economic Cooperation Coordination Division, Ministry of Finance.  The concerned Nepali authorities from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Irrigation participated in the meeting.

The next LoC review meeting will be held in August, in India.