Nepal has sought to acquire two advanced light helicopters (ALHs) from India on subsidised price and New Delhi has taken the request positively, Foreign Ministry sources here said today.
Nepal Army's request to buy two HAL-made Dhruv choppers came during the two-day meeting of 'Nepal-India Bilateral Consultative Group (BCG) on Security Issues' that concluded in Kathmandu yesterday, the sources said.
The Indian side took Nepal's request positively, the sources said.
However, detailed work out of the procurement of the choppers has to be carried out by both the sides.
Earlier, India had provided two ALHs to the Nepal Army temporarily during the second Constituent Assembly elections held in November last year to carry out monitoring of the elections.
These were returned to India after completing the mission.
Providing training to Nepal Army, supply of defence equipments and exchange of information were mainly figured during the recently concluded 11th bilateral consultative meeting.
Sharing of military intelligence information for stepping up border security mechanism were also discussed during the meeting.
Officials from both the countries also discussed each other's security concerns during the meetings.
Nepal has sought resumption of supply of military hardware from government of India, which was halted during the absolute rule by then King Gyanendra in February 2005, when civil rights were suspended.
India has provided some of the defence materials as per the request made by Nepal over the past couple of months and more supplies are in the pipeline, according to Nepal Army sources.
These military equipments were supplied by India at 60 per cent subsidy and 40 per cent cash payment.
However, it is not clear whether India would supply the choppers on the basis of same principle or not, a Foreign Ministry official said.
"However, we are asking for the subsidy which was applied in previous military supplies," said the Foreign Ministry sources.
Details of the talks and negotiations made between the two sides during the bilateral meeting were not disclosed to the press by both the Nepal Army as well as the Foreign Ministry.
