Kathmandu, June 15 -- The Chinese are known to carry out mega projects at lightning speed. But in Nepal, projects tend to get bogged down.

As regards Chinese President Xi Jinping's flagship Belt and Road Initiative projects in Nepal, it is hard to say if the BRI has fallen victim to Nepal's lethargic approach or to broader geopolitics or China's own sluggish approaches-or could it be a mix of them all?

Six months into the signing of the framework for the BRI cooperation during the official visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli's to China, the two sides have only reached a stage of "concept paper" on individual projects. In the first week of December last year, the two had agreed to execute 10 projects focussed on building trans-Himalaya...