国际英语新闻:Nepal unveils five-year strategic plan to develop major infrastructure projects

KATHMANDU, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Nepal announced Sunday a five-year strategic plan to develop major infrastructure projects including highways, roads, bridges and railways with an objective to improve connectivity in the country, officials said.

Under the development plan unveiled by Nepal's Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, reconstruction of Arniko Highway is in top priority, a key highway connecting Nepal and China, which suffered severe damages due to the April 25 devastating earthquake last year.

While releasing the plan, Deputy Prime Minister Bijaya Kumar Gachhadar, who is also the in-charge of Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, said that the government has given top most priority to develop roads and highways across the country.

The ministry has planned to reconstruct 158-kilometer B.P Koirala Highway, which connects country's capital city Kathmandu with the Eastern Terai region.

The ministry has a plan to reconstruct 87 suspension bridges as well as mountain roads within next three years, which were damaged by the earthquakes.

The Nepalese government announced its plan to rebuild the damaged physical infrastructures nearly one year after the Himalayan country ruined from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that claimed around 10,000 lives leaving thousands injured.

The ministry also said that the government will start construction of the much-awaited Kathmandu-Nijgadh Fast Track project soon which links Nepal's capital to country's Bara District bordering India.

It also has aimed to construct Janakpur-Bardibaas Railway project in the Terai region of the country bordering India.

Expansion and improvement of gravel narrow sub-highways inside the Kathmandu Valley are also given top priority under the plan.

"Major highways will be elevated and developed as the express four lanes in the next five years," the ministry said in the five-year plan amid a press conference on Sunday in Kathmandu.

The ministry has also planed to develop a 390-kilometer Koshi Economic Corridor and 390-kilometer Kaligandaki Economic Corridor in the eastern and western region of Nepal respectively.

The two important corridors pass through Nepal, which will eventually connect the country with China in the north and India in the South, experts said.