Kathmandu, July 10 - Less than a month after India sent its Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Nepal, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Water Resources Pawan Kumar Bansal is arriving in Kathmandu on a two-day visit Saturday.
Bansal is the first Indian minister to visit Nepal since the fall of the Maoist government in May and the formation of a new coalition led by communist leader Madhav Kumar Nepal.
Bansal will be inspecting the barrage on the Kosi river in southern Nepal, the bane of Nepal's Terai region and adjoining Bihar state of India during monsoon, the Nepal Prime Minister's Office in Kathmandu said.
Last year, the flooded Kosi killed over 1000 people, mostly in Bihar, and rendered over three million homeless.
The flood created bad blood between the two neighbours. Nepal accused Bihar of neglecting its responsibility to maintain the Kosi barrage, while India said Nepal had failed to ensure security of its inspection team who was hindered from carrying out repairs in time.