Patna College principal Naval Kishore Choudhary speaks at the lecture. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna University is planning to set up a chair named after late BP Koirala, the first Prime Minister of Nepal.

A centre for Nepal studies at the university is also in the pipeline. It will be inaugurated by Nepalese President Ram Baran Yadav, tentatively on November 30, said Patna College principal Naval Kishore Choudhary at the first BP Koirala memorial lecture held on Tuesday.

The topic of the lecture was “India-Nepal relations”.

Choudhary said a letter to this effect has been sent to the consulate general of India, Birganj, Nepal, Anju Ranjan, for the President’s itinerary. “As soon as we get a confirmation from the Nepal side, other formalities regarding the President’s visit will be taken up,” he added.

Anju, while speaking on the occasion, laid stress on students’ exchange programme between India and Nepal to further strengthen the India-Nepal relations. Anju added that several key areas in which there are immense possibilities to strengthen ties between the two countries. Those include trade, power generation, water resources, development of infrastructure, including roads and tourism.

Anju said the value of trade between India and Nepal is $5 billion and hailed the recent power trade agreement.

However, there was a word of caution from the consulate general as she said there lies an urgent need to execute projects between the two nations in a time-bound manner to check anti-India sentiments in Nepal.

Border roads needs to be strengthened as their condition are not in good shape, she said. Others who spoke on the occasion included Patna University vice-chancellor Y.C. Simahadri.