First meeting of Nepal-India oversight mechanism held

The first meeting of Nepal-India Oversight Mechanism was held in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here on Tuesday, an official said.

The meeting discussed ways to clear bottlenecks in various India-funded projects in Nepal.

The meeting was jointly led by Nepal Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi and the Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae.

The Nepali delegation for the meeting included officials of the agencies responsible for implementation of respective projects while the Indian delegation comprised of officials of Indian Embassy and project implementing agencies.

The decision to form an oversight mechanism was agreed during the India visit of Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' in September 2016 in order to review the ongoing economic and development projects on regular basis and take necessary steps to expedite their implementation.

Tuesday's meeting, according to the statement issued by Ministry of Foreign Affairs, made a comprehensive review of the progress made in cross-border rail projects, Integrated Check Posts, cross border transmission lines, Arun III and Upper Karnali Hydropower Projects, Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project, Postal roads, projects under various Lines of Credit including Mahakali Bridge and reconstruction projects in India's cooperation.

The meeting identified measures to be taken by the respective governments to ensure timely and successful implementation of the projects, said the statement.

In their respective opening remarks, leaders of both delegations emphasised on the early completion of all bilateral economic and development cooperation projects.

The leaders also stressed on addressing any difficulty that might surface in the process of project implementation, said the statement, adding the next meeting of the Oversight Mechanism would be held in the last week of January, 2017.

--IANS

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