Kathmandu, August 24

Aiming to achieve timely operation of the long-awaited Janakpur-Kurtha railways, the Department of Railways (DoRW) has formally asked the government to provide 200 technical and non-technical staffers to revive the Nepal Railway Company (NRC).

The government plans to operate the Janakpur-Kurtha railway service from October this year. Earlier, the NRC had operated the Janakpur-Jayanagar railways, which had remained non-functional for the last five years.

“We asked the line ministry, Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport, in writing to provide us with necessary human resources to revive NRC and commence Janakpur-Kurtha railway service from October,” said Aman Chitrakar, spokesperson of DoRW.Moreover, the government plans to resume the Janakpur-Jayanagar railway service from the end of this year, where reconstruction work is ongoing with technical and financial support from the government of India.

The department had formally started the process from April 24 to revive the government-owned NRC, which has been inactive since 2014.

“We have already amended the bylaws for operation of railway service and hiring of staffers,” Chitrakar said, adding that it was necessary to revise the previous bylaws and make them more contextual.

At present, there are only a few staffers at the department. So, it needs to revise the existing organisational structure of the company as well. Chitrakar further said that the present railway scenario has totally changed, as the government is building various railway projects of different nature across the country. “Hence, the need for more staffers,” he explained.

As per the earlier agreement with the Indian government, Nepali and Indian nationals will not be required to acquire visa to enter each other’s country via rail service. The Nepal government is planning to operate both passenger and freight trains in the Janakpur-Jayanagar section.