Indian Railways will soon set up a station in Arunachal Pradesh near the India-China border, defence minister Manohar Parrikar said on Saturday.
“A draft of the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) is ready and will be signed soon,” Parrikar said, adding he has spoken in detail about the project to railway minister Suresh Prabhu.
The defence minister said that the “gravity” of the border issue between China and India has come down as far as Arunachal Pradesh is concerned.
State run China Daily had reported on Thursday that China was planning to build a tunnel under Mount Everest, called Qomolangma in Tibetan, as part of its plan to extend its rail link to Nepal, a move that could send alarm bills ringing in India.
This is the first time a tunnel plan has been revealed to reach Nepal. China had earlier discussed extending the Qinghai-Lhasa line to the Nepalese border without digging a tunnel.
Sources said the idea was to find a short route to Nepal for accessing the vast Indian market. Besides, China might be trying to involve Nepal for its Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar (BCIM) project because New Delhi has shown little enthusiasm for this corridor, sources said.
