Mahendranagar: Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport Devendra Dahal has said that the process for operating Janakpur-Ayodhya railway service has reached its final stage and will commence soon.
Organizing a press conference at the Janakpurdham Railway Station today, he said the Government of Nepal is to introduce various plans for making the Nepal Railway Service up to the mark and a profitable.
“The process has been moved ahead for setting up washing centres at various places of the Nepal Railway. The losses of the Railway would be decreased to some extent with the construction of the washing centres. We are preparing to operate cargo railway service also in the coming days,” he added.
The Physical Infrastructure and Transport Minister arrived in Janakpurdham for inspecting the already constructed and the under-construction roads as well as the Nepal Railway.
Describing the Nepal Railway as a ‘dream project’, he asserted that efforts are on to expand the railway service up to Bardibas of Mahottari. The railway service currently is operated from Jayanagar-Janakpur to Bijalpura of Mahottari.
According to him, the operation of railway service up to Bardibas is delayed due to the dispute over compensation of land acquired for the project.
General Manager of the Railway Company, Niranjan Jha, said they will recruit permanent employees soon to address the shortage of staff, expand the capacity of the station and construct the required infrastructures. He informed that the preparations for operating the railway service from Janakpurdham to Ayodhya of India have reached the final stage.
Meanwhile, Minister Dahal conducted an onsite inspection and monitoring of the Railway Service (Company) in Janakpurdham today to take stock of the Company’s activities and progress.
On the occasion, he acquired necessary information from General Manager Jha and other officials and discussed on railway development and construction.
He boarded on a train compartment at the railway station in Janakpurdham and took a train ride up to Jayanagar of India in course of the inspection.
Nepal Railway Company has stated that it carried out transactions worth over Rs 77.5 million in the Fiscal Year 2023/24. More than 1.5 million passengers used the railway service last year.
Nine hundred thousand Nepali passengers and more than 600 thousand Indian passengers travelled using Nepal Railway Service which is currently operating from the Indian border town Jayanagar to Bhangaha of Mahottari via Janakpur, the capital of Madhes province.
The train service used to operate on 35 kilometres from Kurtha to Jayanagar of India since April 3, 2022 and it was extended on additional 17 kilometres up to Bhangaha of Mahottari on July 15, 2024.
It is said that the number of passengers is growing since the commencement of the railway service. More than 3,000 passengers travel daily by Nepal Railway Service.
The Railway is operated with the financial and technical assistance of the Government of India. Indian technical employees are working for the railway service even till date. Twenty employees are working at present.
Nepal Railway has to pay Rs 7 million monthly to an Indian company in lieu of the employees’ salary, cleaning of the compartments and repair and maintenance of the railway.
At present, the Indian side is carrying out the technical works for expanding the railway from Kurtha to Bardibas. Nepal Railway Company has expressed commitment to operate railway service on this 17 kilometres section within three years. The railway service will run on 69 kilometres once the construction works on this section are completed.
The Government of Nepal and the Government of India had signed an agreement, in 2010, to operate the railway service from Jayanagar to Bhangaha, Bardibas. As per the agreement, the Nepal government will provide the land while the Indian government will carry out all the works like construction of the track, station building, halt, bridges, drinking water, electricity supply, among other infrastructures.
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