New Delhi: In a clear indication that India is lukewarm to the Chinese proposal of construction of an India-Nepal-China economic corridor with multi-dimensional connectivity through the Himalayas, sources said on Tuesday that India would prefer to focus on strengthening bilateral connectivity projects with Nepal.

This assumes significance as PM Narendra Modi is expected to visit Nepal next month. China had apparently made the proposal recently to Nepal. Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli is widely regarded as pro-China in his policies and approach but had chosen India to make his first visit recently after becoming Prime Minister in the Himalayan nation. Nevertheless, China is rapidly increasing its influence in Nepal after the landslide victory of the Nepalese Communists in the recent general elections there.

Sources said India wants to "strengthen" bilateral connectivity links with Nepal, thereby indicating that it is not focusing on any trilateral connectivity initiative involving China as well.  

In what was seen as an attempt to forget the bitterness of the recent past and build a "forward-looking relationship", visiting Nepalese Prime Minister Oli and PM Modi had held talks earlier this month in New Delhi and decided on new “game-changer” initiatives in the field of connectivity including a proposed new electrified railway line with Indian financial support that will connect Raxaul in Bihar with the Nepalese capital Kathmandu.

The two countries had also decided to develop inland waterways for the movement of cargo, thereby providing additional access to the sea for land-locked Nepal.