India and Nepal to hold meeting on development projects on August 17

New Delhi: India and Nepal will sit on August 17 (Monday) to talk on the New Delhi's development projects in the country. The "scheduled oversight mechanism" will see India being represented by its envoy in Kathmandu Vinay Mohan Kwatra and Nepal being represented by Foreign Secretary Shankar Das Bairagi.

Indian government sources said the meet is "part of regular interaction between India and Nepal" and the mechanism was set up in 2016 to "review ongoing bilateral economic and development projects, and meets on a periodic basis".

The meeting comes amidst deteriorating political ties between both the countries, with India irked by Nepali PM KP Sharma Oli coming with the new map of the country that shows Indian territories as its own. 

India has been assisting Nepal in development of border infrastructure through up-gradation of 10 roads in the Terai area, developing cross-border rail links at Jogbani-Biratnagar, Jaynagar-Bardibas and establishment of Integrated Check Posts at Birgunj, Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, and Nepalgunj.

The total economic assistance earmarked under ‘Aid to Nepal’ budget in FY 2019-20 was Rs 1,200 crore.