Modi should take steps to transform Nepal India, Japan to help develop Colombo port

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge for a second term, Nepal's top industrialist Binod Chaudhary hoped the two countries will show a "renewed sense of commitment" to take bilateral ties to new heights.

Chaudhary is confident that Modi would take the "required decisive steps to transform Nepal", saying it would be beneficial for India too.

The billionaire businessman talked about the trade imbalance tilted towards India and wanted Modi to "correct" the situation, saying: "It requires a political leadership of different order. Modiji has that courage."

"A prosperous Nepal will be beneficial for India," said the chairman of CG Corp Global, which has more than 130 companies in diverse sectors, including financial services, energy, education, hospitality and real estate.

"Both countries need to forget the past and work for a different level of economic prosperity," Chaudhary said. Asked what he meant by "forgetting the past", Chaudhary referred to the 2015 unrest by Madhesis, who are people of Indian origin, which was followed by the economic blockade of Nepal by India.

"Things were moving on track, but the unfortunate events, like Madhesi unrest and blockade, happened and caused serious damage to the relations at people to people level. This has left an undesirable level of trust deficit and pain in many minds which, given the historic relationship of Nepal and India, needs to be corrected," he said. .

"Unfortunately, there are elements in both India and Nepal who consciously don't let things happen and sabotage the processes. They are good at spreading an impression that helps in creating lack of mutual trust," he said.

Modi, in his address to the Nepalese Parliament on August 3, 2014, had said India would help the Himalayan country build highways, I-ways and transways.

He had noted that Nepal had abundant potential in the hydro power sector and India would like to buy electricity from it, for which New Delhi was committed to establish transmission lines.

Chaudhary said: "Modiji went out of the way in cementing the relationship, which has opened many new dimensions of mutual cooperation, including waterways and railways, and reopening avenues with economic relationship to a new height."

Talking about possibilities in the energy sector, he said: "Nepal is in an unfortunate situation by having to buy power instead of selling... There is potential for generation of 100,000 megawatts of power in Nepal. Instead, Nepal buys 500 megawatts from India." He said India should help build power plants of at least 20,000-30,000 megawatts in Nepal.