Don't construct road via Nepali territory unilaterally, Nepal tells India

The Indian government is building a road via Lipulekh to Kailash Mansarovar in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China

Kathmandu on Sunday asked New Delhi to refrain from “unilateral construction” in what it claimed to be a part of the territory of Nepal, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s promise to upgrade a border road ratcheted up the territorial row between the two neighbouring nations once again.

Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s government re-asserted Kathmandu’s claim on Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani on the Nepal-India border. The Nepalese Government also formally objected to New Delhi’s plan for expanding the road from Dharchula in Uttarakhand to the Lipulekh Pass.

Modi promised to expand the road from Dharchula to Lipulekh Pass – an India-Nepal-China tri-junction boundary point – while addressing a rally in Haldwani in poll-bound Uttarakhand on December 30 last.

“Manas Khand, which is the gateway to Mansarovar, was deprived of roads by those who believed in depriving you of comforts. We not only worked on the Tanakpur-Pithoragarh All Weather Road, but also built the road up to Lipulekh and it is being expanded further,” he said, just about 10 days before the Election Commission announced the schedule of the assembly polls in five states, including Uttarakhand.

Also Read: India’s stance on Nepal boundary well known, consistent & unambiguous: Embassy

Deuba’s predecessor K P Sharma Oli had led the Nepalese Government’s move to ratchet up the territorial row between Nepal and India after Modi’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had virtually inaugurated an 80-kilometre-long road from Ghatiabgarh in Dharchula to Lipulekh Pass in May 2020.

Kathmandu had cried foul and claimed that the road built by India had gone through the territory of Nepal and its construction had violated the understanding reached between the two nations that they would resolve the boundary dispute through negotiation.

New Delhi had rejected the contention of Nepal, asserting that the new road lay completely within the territory of India. The Oli Government, however, had gone ahead, published a new map, which had showed nearly 400 sq kms of India’s areas in Kalapani, Lipulekh Pass and Limpiyadhura as part of Nepal. It had also got the Nepalese Parliament to amend the country’s constitution to endorse the new map.

Though Oli is no longer in the office of the Prime Minister in Kathmandu, Deuba too had to get his government to formally protest against New Delhi’s plan to expand the road.

Also Read: MoU for bridge between India and Nepal at Uttarakhand's Dharchula gets Cabinet nod

The Nepalese Government is absolutely clear and firm on the fact that Limpiyadhura, Lipulekh and Kalapani that lie to the east of Mahakali River are integral terrains of Nepal, the neighbouring country’s Minister for Information Technology and Communications, Gyandendra Bahadur Karki, said in Kathmandu on Sunday. He said that the Nepalese Government had been urging the Government of India to not proceed with the unilateral construction or extension of roads in the territory of Nepal.

Oli’s Communist Party of Nepal (UML) and Deuba’s Nepali Congress (NC) are among several political parties which have already protested against New Delhi’s plan to expand Dharchula-Lipulekh road, as promised by Modi.

The Embassy of India in Kathmandu said on Saturday that the position of the Government of India on the India-Nepal boundary was “well known, consistent and unambiguous” and it had been communicated to the Government of Nepal. “It is our view that the established inter-governmental mechanisms and channels are most appropriate for communication and dialogue. Mutually agreed boundary issues that are outstanding can always be addressed in the spirit of our close and friendly bilateral relations,” a spokesperson of the embassy said.

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