India and Nepal form high-level panel for implementing projects

Nepal and India have formed a high-level panel to address bottlenecks in Indiafunded projects and to implement them in a timebound manner.

Creating such an oversight mechanism had been agreed upon during the India visit of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘ Prachanda’ in September.

Foreign Secretary of Nepal will lead the Nepali side of the panel, while the Indian side will be led by Indian Ambassador to Nepal. Other members from the Nepali side included joint secretaries of finance, commerce, physical infrastructure and transport, planning, home affairs, energy and irrigation. The Indian side also comprises of deputy chief of mission, economic cooperation counsellor and reconstruction counsellor at the Indian embassy.

Officials of both countries have been instructed to closely monitor progress of the ongoing projects under bilateral economic and development cooperation, address any bottlenecks, and to complete them expeditiously in a time bound manner.

The panel will meet once a month in Kathmandu and assess progress in executing the projects, resolve pending issues and will give instructions if needed, said a senior Indian official at the Indian embassy.

India-funded projects in Nepal include those in areas like energy, hydro-power, cross border transmission line, road and railways as well as integrated check posts.