Kathmandu, Feb 20 (IANS): India's Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhu announced here that it would soon link Kathmandu to New Delhi and Kolkata using direct railway lines, in a bid to strengthen cross-border connectivity and facilitate movement of people between the two countries.

Prabhu, who is here to address the Nepal Infrastructure Summit, said that this could happen as soon as Nepal signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for engineering surveys.

He added that India was ready to share its drone technology and experience with Nepal for monitoring the project.

According to experts, this move a counter to China's bid to expand its rail network towards Lumbini via Kathmandu.

Prabhu held separate meetings with Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari,Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal, Minister of Physical Infrastructure and Transport Ramesh Lekhak, Civil Aviation, Culture and Tourism Minister Jiwan Bahadur Shahi and Energy Minister Janardan Sharma.

He also met Nepalese business leaders, political leaders, industry heads, with whom discussed a wide range of infrastructure development issues.