Kathmandu, February 6:

Engineers from different disciplines today renewed their suggestions to the government to construct a Birgunj-Kathmandu railway to make transportation service in the country ‘affordable’.

A host of engineers had come to the conclusion after a survey on the possibility of railway 13 years ago. The findings of the study were submitted to the then royal government in 2002.

Structural engineer Shankar Nath Rimal at a press meet here today said: “We came to the

conclusion after a survey under Infrastructure Nepal on the possibility of railway service from economic, geological and environmental perspectives.”

Though the study was just a group effort of a number of engineers, it was institutionalised after registering an NGO called Infrastructure Nepal. They said the then royal government cited lack of law to put the study in works but promised to build fast track railways.

“We sold 80 per cent shares to Raj Bahadur Singh, son-in-law of King Gyanendra, with a hope that our voices will be heard. But, a relative of Singh registered another company ‘Benchmark Nepal’ and copied our project plan,” he said, adding: “The licence to construct the railway was provided to the Benchmark Nepal by the royal government.”

Engineer Shambhu Pani Gautam said: “We had presented the report estimating the total cost at around Rs 14 billion, including land cost.”

“The present government thought of giving it a fresh start and estimated the total cost to be Rs 23 billion,” BK Pokhrel, chief engineer, said.

We sold 80pc shares to Raj Bahadur Singh, son-in-law of King Gyanendra, with a hope that our voices will be heard. But, a relative of Singh registered another company and copied our project plan