A team of Chinese topography experts has launched a comprehensive project to map the Nepal-China border using Global Positioning System (GPS).

Chinese media reports quoting Shaanxi Provincial Surveying and Mapping Bureau said the Chinese topography experts would join others to carry out survey in seven counties of Tibet Autonomous Region.

The experts will receive acclimatization training in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, before setting out to the border area for the survey, China People’s Daily said. This is the third survey of the 1400km-long Nepal-China border. Earlier two joint surveys were carried out in 1978 and 1988.

Nepal and China had signed a boundary agreement in 1961. The mapping officials are scheduled to arrive in the joint border this month [April] and the survey is expected to finish by the end of September.

Earlier this month, China’s chief representative of the joint mapping, Li Qingyuan, had told Chinese official news agency, Xinhua, that major mapping work would be conducted by Chinese experts and then Nepali officials would check the data.

The final mapping result, which will be valid only after Nepali and Chinese officials sign it, is expected in 2007. nepalnews.com mk Apr 01 06