Railway movement tested at Janakpur-Jayanagar track

Kathmandu, Aug 9: Railway movement was successfully tested at the Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway track’s 8.5 kilometre section.

Ircon International, an Indian government undertaking, had started the testing of the recently upgraded broad gauge railway track of the 29 km Janakpur-Jayanagar section on Wednesday after completing the track-laying, said Prakash Bhakta Upadhyaya, Senior Divisional Engineer at the Department of Railways (DoRW).

The only railway track in the country, which is the part of the larger project that extends up to Bardibas of Mahottari district, was upgraded to broad gauge from the narrow gauge, and has been out of service for the last five years.

It is being upgraded with the Indian government’s support of about Rs. 8.8 billion.

According to the DoRW, railway service will come into operation in Janakpur-Jayanagar sector from October this year.

However, as the country does not have any trains and human resources to operate the service, the DoRW has decided to ask for Indian support.

Upadhyaya said that the government has simultaneously initiated the process to procure a locomotive and hire another one for a certain period in order to start the train service in time.

“With the present procurement system, it is not possible to procure the train by October this year. At the same time, we don’t capable human resources for the operation. Therefore, the department is planning to wet-lease a train to run the service,” he said.

The government in its budget for the current fiscal 2018/19 has allocated budget to buy a rail.

The department has finalised the modality to wet-lease a train. It will come with staff and technician who will help in creating Nepali manpower required for the train service operation.

The DoRW will hire the required human resources for the railway service, and they will be trained by the staff and technicians of the leased train.

Since the country is implement large cross border and east-west railway projects, there will be a huge demand of competent manpower in the near future.

The total length of Jayanagar-Janakpur-Bardibas railway is 69 km. There was a 52 km long railway line from Bijalpura of Mahottari to Jayanagar of India built by the British rulers of about 8 decades ago.

But, a massive floods swept away Bighi bridge some 15 years ago which put the Janakpur-Bijalpura section out of operation and the railway service was limited to Janakpur-Jayanagar.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 10 August 2018.