India is helping Nepal to set up a national police academy near Kathmandu at a cost of 550 crore rupees. The academy at Panauti, 35 km south-east of Kathmandu, will be on the lines of Hyderabad-based Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel National Police Academy (NPA). It will provide training to 410 Nepalese police officers annually.
The feasibility study for the police academy was done by the NPA, Hyderabad, while India’s Ministry of Home Affairs is doing consultancy service for the project monitoring and quality assurance services. Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs is the executing agency.
As of now, 350 police officers from Nepal undergo training in India every year. India provides substantial financial and technical development assistance to Nepal, which is a broad-based programme focusing on creation of infrastructure at the grass-root level, under which various projects have been implemented in the areas of health, water resources, education and rural and community development.
In recent years, India has been assisting Nepal in development of border infrastructure through upgradation of roads in the Terai areas; development of various cross-border rail links and establishment of integrated check posts at Raxaul-Birgunj, Sunauli-Bhairhawa, Jogbani-Biratnagar, and Nepalgunj Road-Nepalgunj.
India and Nepal share a unique relationship of friendship and cooperation characterised by open borders and deep-rooted people-to-people contacts of kinship and culture.- AIR-