Nepal seeks India’s assistance on Raxaul-Kathmandu railway line

Kathmandu, March 7 (IANS) Nepal has sought India’s financial, economic, technical inputs and suggestions on the viability of the 141km Raxaul-Kathmandu railway line that aims at establishing a direct link between the Indian border city and the Nepalese capital.

India and Nepal had recently held the 9th Project Steering Committee (PSC) and the 7th Joint Working Group (JWG) meetings on February 27-28 in New Delhi to review the implementation of ongoing cross-border railway links and overall bilateral cooperation in the railway sector.

Sushil Babu Dhakal, Joint Secretary at Nepal’s Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transportation, who had led the visiting delegation at the meetings, told local media in Kathmandu on Friday that Nepal has now sought Indian perspective on the project’s viability citing concerns over low financial return and the suggested 25-year payback period.

“We are in a nascent phase in building the railway and we have little understanding of it… On the other hand, we are also building an expressway to link Kathmandu with the southern plains, so in this context, we have asked the Indian side for technical insights,” Dhakal told Nepal’s leading daily, The Kathmandu Post.

During the meetings held in New Delhi, the Final Location Survey (FLS) Report of Raxaul-Kathmandu Broad Gauge Railway Link, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the commencement of passenger train services on the Janakpur-Ayodhya section, and additional railway links were also discussed.

The Indian delegation at the meetings was led by Rohit Rathish, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Pradeep Ojha, Executive Director, Traffic Transportation-Freight at the Ministry of Railways.

“The Indian side had insisted that we link the current cross-border railway between Janakpur city of Nepal with Ayodhya as just last year, over 100 million people visited Ayodhya, and even if a fraction of them go to Janakpur, it would be a huge number,” Dhakal stated.

Both sides had also discussed the ongoing works of Jaynagar-Bijalpura-Bardibas and Jogbani-Biratnagar broad gauge railway lines between India and Nepal, being developed with grant assistance from Government of India.

“The preparedness for the commencement of work on the remaining sections of the two railway lines i.e. from Bijalpura to Bardibas on Jaynagar-Bijalpura-Bardibas and Nepal Custom Yard to Biratnagar on Jogbani-Biratnagar was also reviewed. The Nepali side assured that necessary facilitation will be provided for early commencement and completion of the work on the remaining sections of the railway lines,” read a statement issued by the MEA, earlier this week.

It was mentioned that both sides also agreed to enhance technical cooperation in the areas of capacity building, logistic support and training of Nepali railway personnel.

In order to expand connectivity to enhance people-to-people linkages and promote economic growth and development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Nepali counterpart KP Sharma Oli had agreed in 2018 to construct a new electrified rail line with India’s financial support, connecting the border city of Raxaul in India to Kathmandu in Nepal.

As a first step, it was agreed that the Government of India would, in consultation with the Government of Nepal, carry out preparatory survey work within one year, and the two sides would finalise the implementation and funding modalities of the project based on the Detailed Project Report. The Prime Minister of Nepal had assured that the Government of Nepal will extend full cooperation for the early completion of the requisite surveys for the new rail line.

–IANS

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