Kathmandu, Aug 3
Nepal is waiting to use multiple
cargo entry points with railway connectivity to ease its international trade
and get alternative routes to other Indian sea ports like Dhamra in Odisha
and Mundra in Gujrat which are the facilities the country had asked the
southern neighbour to provide. Nepal is allowed to use Kolkata, Haldia
and Bishakhapattanam ports in India so far.
Indian Special Secretary
(Logistics) at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry N. Sivasailam last week
said that India was positive for allowing Nepali importers to change the
freight destination points at the Nepal-India border.
While the country eyes large
railway projects as one of the key elements for the rapid industrial and
economic development, its aspirations are connected with the cross-border
railways with India and China.
Since Nepal's two-third trade
happens with India which is also the largest export market, and more than 95
per cent goods move through the southern border points, the government wants to
expedite the development of cross-border railways which seems to be
reciprocated by the southern neighbour.
Indian Ambassador to Nepal
Manjeev Singh Puri has recently said that Nepal-India cross-border railway and
inland waterway projects were in the priority and they would witness progress
soon.
Jayanagar-Janakpur-Bardibas,
Jogbani-Biratnagar, Jalpaigudi-Kakarbhitta, Nautanawa-Bhairahawa and Rupaidiha-Nepalgunj
are the five cross-border railway projects. Nepal and India had signed a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for these projects in 2010.
The Ministry of Physical Infrastructure
and Transport (MoPIT) said that the Jayanagar-Janakpur-Kurtha railway line (35
km) was completed and would come into operation by October this year while train
service would be started at the 17 km long Kurtha-Bijalpura extension of the
same track by March 2020.
The Jayanagar-Janakpur-Bijalpura
railway will be expanded up to Nijgadh of Bara via Bardibas of Mahottari
district. The construction is completed at Bardibas-Lalbandi section (30 km)
and 40 km long Lalbandi-Nijgadh will be completed in 2.5 years from now.
Likewise, Bathnaha-Birathagar Railway has
witnessed more than 50 per cent progress with 10 km of the total 18 km long
track completed. The DoR is set to operate railway service in this track in the
current fiscal year 2019/20.
Feasibility of
Raxaul-Kathmandu Railway completed
The Ministry has also completed
the feasibility report of the Raxaul-Kathmandu Railway (135 km) and
Kathmandu-Rasuwagadhi (72 km). The Raxaul-Kathmandu Railway line will come up
to Chobhar Dry Port – under construction now – and will connect Birgunj, Jitpur
and Nijgadh. The 140 km long track will have 50 km long tunnel.
Similarly, Kathmandu-Rasuwagadhi
Railway will be 72.25 km long and about 98 per cent of the track would either
be in bridges or tunnels. The estimated cost of this ambitious project is Rs.
257 billion.
"The government has
completed the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of different projects with 421 km
length," said Balram Mishra, Director General of the Department of
Railways (DoR).
He said that the study for the
DPR of Rasuwagadhi-Kathmandu Railway and Birgunj-Kathmandu Railway would be initiated
in the near future with the support from the India government.
Land Procurement Challenge
Mishra said that the land
acquisition for the railway line and station was meeting multiple glitches at
various locations. Likewise, there is delay in getting approval to cut down
trees in the forest area, and to manage river-based construction materials.
"We have been directed to
procure land at the government-set rate but it is impossible to buy land at
that price. However, we have proposed the average of bank transaction of the
land, its selling rate and rate of land revenue as the procurement price,"
said Mishra.
Train in three months
The DoR is in the process of
procuring two DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) train sets from the Konkan
Railway Corporation Limited, an Indian government enterprise, at the cost of
Rs. 846.5 million.
However, it had missed the
deadlines to bring the trains in Nepal. Earlier the DoR had said that the
locomotives would arrive in Nepal by mid-May but due to delay in communication
and other technical requirements, they will come after about 3 months.
The trains will have 5 to 10
bogies with an engine at the front and back.
According to Mishra, the DoR is
undergoing through human resources shortage.
While most of the officials and
technicians at the DoR were transferred from the Department of Roads, the
former is planning to revive the erstwhile Nepal Railway Company (NRC) and use
it as the human resource development centre.
NRC was a government agency that
operated Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway service in the past and is unfunctional
since 2014.
Railway Timeline
1927: British built first railway
in the country to connect Amlekhgunj of Nepal with Raxaul in India
1937: Jayanagar-Janakpur Railways
constructed
1965: Raxaul-Amlekhgunj Railway
closed
2001: Janakpur-Bijalpura Railway
service closed
2005: Indian Railways was
connected to Sirsiya Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Birgunj
2008: Establishment of East-West
Electrified Railway Project
2009: Feasibility of
Mechi-Mahakali Railway (945 km), Kathmandu-Pokhara Railway (187 km) and
Bharatpur-Aanbukhaireni Railway (72.7 km)
2010: MoU signed with India for
cross-border railway development
2011: Establishment of Department
of Railway
2018: MoU signed with China on
cooperation in railway projects.
MoU
signed with India on preliminary survey of Kathmandu-Raxaul Railway
Janakpur-Jayanagar-Kurtha
Railway line constructed
2019: Government decides to buy 2
DEMU train from India
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