<div>Nepal's investment board on Monday cleared China's Three Gorges International Corp to build a long-delayed $1.6 billion new hydropower project, the single biggest foreign investment in the Himalayan country.</div><div> </div><div>The dam, to be built on the West Seti river in northwest Nepal, will generate 750 megawatts of power when complete, board official Ghanashyam Ojha said.</div><div> </div><div>A Nepal parliamentary panel first approved the project in 2012 but state-owned Three Gorges had been waiting for the investment board's clearance.</div><div> </div><div>Nepal, one of the world's poorest countries, is opening up its vast hydropower potential to help ease chronic power shortages and grow an economy still emerging from a decade-long civil war.</div><div> </div><div>That has prompted a rush by China and India to invest billions exploiting their neighbour's rivers and import electricity to their energy-hungry economies.</div><div> </div><div>Last year Nepal cleared two major Indian hydropower projects worth a combined $2.4 billion, including what was at the time the largest foreign investment scheme in the country.</div><div> </div><div>New Delhi has long seen Nepal as part of its sphere of influence but growing Chinese investment in recent years has altered the relationship.</div><div> </div><div>In March, Beijing said it would extend a $145 million grant for the upgrade of a 114-km (71-mile) road that links the capital Kathmandu with the Tibetan border, as well as other infrastructure projects.</div><div> </div><div>Three Gorges is China's biggest hydropower developer and operates the world's largest hydropower plant at the Three Gorges on the Yangtze river.</div><div> </div><div>China has been scaling up its ties with Nepal much to the chagrin of India to stem the flow of Tibetans travelling through Nepal to meet the Dalai Lama in Dharamshala.</div><div> </div><div>Beijing recently increased its annual aid to Nepal to $128 million from the previous $24 million.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Tunnel Under Mount Everest</strong></div><div>China plans to build a 540-kilometre strategic high-speed rail link between Tibet and Nepal passing through a tunnel under Mount Everest.</div><div> </div><div>"A proposed extension of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to the China-Nepal border through Tibet would boost bilateral trade and tourism as there is currently no rail line linking the two countries," state-run China Daily reported.</div><div> </div><div>The rail line is expected to be completed by 2020.</div><div> </div><div>The 1,956-km long Qinghai-Tibet railway already links the rest of China with the Tibetan capital Lhasa and beyond.</div><div> </div><div>Wang Mengshu, a rail expert at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that engineers will face a number of difficulties once the project begins.</div><div> </div><div>"If the proposal becomes reality, bilateral trade, especially in agricultural products, will get a strong boost, along with tourism and people-to-people exchanges," he said.</div><div> </div><div>Such a plan could see a tunnel being built under Mount Everest, the China Daily said.</div><div> </div><div>"The changes in the elevation along the line are remarkable. The line is probably have to go through Qomolangma so that worker may have to dig some very long tunnels," Wang said. Qomolangma Mountain is the Tibetan name for Mt Everest.</div><div> </div><div>Restrained by rugged Himalayan mountains with its "remarkable" changes in elevation, trains on the line would probably have a maximum speed of 120 kmph.</div><div> </div><div>Wang said that the project is being undertaken at Nepal's request and that China has begun preparatory work.</div><div> </div><div>Losang Jamcan, Chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, told Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav during his visit to Tibet's provincial capital Lhasa last month that China plans to extend the Tibet railway to Kermug, the Chinese town nearest to Nepal border where a border trade port has been built.</div><div> </div><div>Besides Nepal, China had earlier announced plans to extend its Tibetan rail network to Bhutan and India.</div><div> </div><div>During his recent visit to Nepal, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had asked the officials to conduct a feasibility study to extend the rail network to Kathmandu and beyond, the report said.</div><div> </div><div>(Agencies)</div>
