Nepal awards key expressway project near Indian border to Chinese company

The Nepal Army, which is overseeing the project, issued a letter of intent to the Chinese firm last week

The Nepal Army has awarded the contract to build a key phase of a strategic expressway linking the capital Kathmandu with the southern plains to a Chinese firm, ignoring a bid by Indian's Afcons Infrastructure, according to a report in The Economic Times.

The report, citing people aware of the matter, said that China First Highway Engineering lacked the technical expertise to build the sixth phase of the Kathmandu-Terai-Madhesh Expressway and was disqualified initially. However, a backdoor