Nepal PM offers prayers, signs pacts on India visit
Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba along with his wife Arzu Deuba arrived in India on April 1 on a three-day visit. It is his first such visit abroad after assuming office in July 2021.
On April 4 on the last day of his official visit he came to Varanasi to offer prayers at the Kaal Bhairav temple, Kashi Vishwanath temple and Samrajeswar Pashupatinath temple.
Samrajeswar Pashupatinath Temple in the holy city of Varanasi which stood as a symbol of India-Nepal unity is attracting scores of tourists and pilgrims after the development of Kashi Vishwanath Temple. It is also known as Nepali Mandir.
Earlier in the day, Deuba along with his wife offered prayers at Kaal Bhairav temple and Kashi Vishwanath temple and offered prayers.
The streets of Varanasi were all decked up with Deuba's posters and hoardings to greet him. Children could be seen standing with the national flags of both countries (India and Nepal).
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was already in Varanasi before the Nepal Prime Minister's arrival.
A day earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Deuba met and held delegation-level talks at Hyderabad House in New Delhi.
The two Prime Ministers jointly launched multiple projects which are likely to boost connectivity between the two countries while they expressed hope that the key initiatives being taken by them would take India-Nepal relations to new heights.
Both PMs first inaugurated a 35-km long cross-border rail link from Jayanagar in Bihar to Kurtha in Nepal and also a passenger train service built under India's Grant Assistance in a joint address at Hyderabad House.
The two countries signed agreements on Nepal becoming the 105th member of the International Solar Alliance (ISA), technical cooperation in railways, supply of petroleum products and sharing of technical expertise in the petroleum sector between Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. (IOCL) and Nepal Oil Corporation Ltd. (NOC).
The two countries announced the launch of the Indian RuPay card in Nepal, with the domestic variant of the RuPay card (roughly 83 per cent of all RuPay cards issued) to be functional on about 1400 Point of Sale (POS) machines in Nepal.
(ANI)