Railway dream: Still a long way to go

Kathmandu, July 10: Nepal might be seeing dreams of railways crisscrossing the country from north to south and east to west, but it does not have a single locomotive or the human resource required to operate the service.

Nepal is in a ‘rail’ mania with about a dozen railway projects in the pipeline – including the Mechi-Mahakali Railway, Keyrung-Kathmandu Railway, Metro Train service in various cities and five cross-border railway projects along the Nepal-India border, and rail talks dominating the agenda during high level visits to its two neighbours.  

But even the Janakpur-Jayanagar railway service, the only of its kind in the country - reconstructed with Indian assistance - is likely to be obstructed for lack of trained manpower.

The Department of Railways (DoRW) is planning to operate railway service on the Janakpur-Jayanagar section from October this year but is worried that a shortage of locomotives and human resource might obstruct the plan.

The country does not have any experience in operating modern railway service.

According to the experts, Nepal also lacks a proper railway policy, the Railways Act, 1963 is outdated and cannot address the modern needs and operational modalities.

Senior Divisional Engineer at the DoRW Prakash Bhakta Upadhyaya said that when completed, a high level commission should give the green signal to the Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway to begin service, as per the international practice. But the country does not have enough experts to form such a commission.

However, even amidst such shortcomings, the department is studying alternatives to run the Janakpur-Jayanagar railway service within the stipulated timeframe, i.e., within four months from now.

According to Upadhyaya, since the train procurement process cannot be completed in the next five months, the department is planning to wet-lease a locomotive in order to run the services within the deadline.

The government has allocated budget to buy a locomotive.

Wet-lease means hiring a train, including its staff and technicians. Wet-lease is generally an arrangement for airline companies, but it is in practice in the railway industry as well, said Upadhyaya.

“The required human resources for the leased train will be hired by the department so as to create the manpower for the industry. As the government is implementing large railway projects in the coming years, we need a large number of trained personnel,” he said.

China has also agreed to provide support to create the necessary railway human resource. The agenda was included during the visit of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in June this year.

Similarly, Nepal has asked India to send experts for the commission that would be set to commence the railway service. The request was made during the two-day Joint Working Group (JWG) between Nepal and India that concluded on Tuesday in Kathmandu.

The JWG was satisfied at the progress made in the two ongoing rail link projects: Janakpur-Bijalpura-Bardibas and Jogbani-Biratnagar, and held detailed discussion on the requirements for operating train services on completion of the projects.

PM Oli and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had announced, in their joint press statement during Oli’s visit to India in April this year that the railway stretch from Jayanagar to Janakpur/Kurtha and from Jogbani to Biratnagar Custom Yard would be completed in 2018.  

The operation of train services on those two railway lines would bring India-Nepal relations to a new height with enhanced people-to-people linkages and better trade and economic activities between the two countries, said the Embassy of India in Kathmandu.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 11 July 2018.