Survey for railroad extension completed
BY SHYAM SUNDAR SHARMA
JANAKPUR, Jan 11 - RITES, an Indian government agency entrusted for exploring extension possibilities of Jankpur-Jaynagar Railway Service (JJRS) and conversing meter gauge railway tracks into broad gauge tracks, has completed site inspections of the railway lines.
Bhola Nath Sharma, Manager of Nepal Railway Company (NRC), the operator of JJRS, told the Post a nine-member technical team from RITES led by its technocrats, BM Gupta and AK Haldar has completed the first phase of the survey on Sunday.
"During the past one week, the Indian team studied the feasibility of replacing the 52-km meter gauge railway line between Bijalpura of Nepal and Jaynagar of India with broad gauge and construction of additional 17-km railway line to extend its service to Bardibas," he said.
Sharma also said that the India team will also conduct a full fledged survey for the next four months. "The team will submit an in-depth feasibility report to the Indian government within two months of completion of the survey and the report will later be handed over to the Nepali government," he said.
According to PM Shukla, managing director of RITES, an estimated amount of Rs 150,000 will be spent on feasibility study of each kilometer of the railway track.
"The overall cost for the conversion of railway tracks and the extension of railway lines is estimated at around four billion rupees," he informed.
Manager Sharma said that if the Nepal government can initiate serious dialogue with the Indian government to begin construction works as soon as possible, the construction of 70-kilometer railway line would complete within next two years.
The 64-year old railway service, which was converted to company in May last year, caters service to around 17,000 people everyday and earns an average income of Rs 40,000 per day.
The company, operating on a cumulative loss of Rs 3.3 million, has been operating only two of the four engines. According to officials of NRC, the two are also in a dilapidated state and could be pulled out of service anytime.
In a bid to improve the infrastructure of JJRS and explore possibilities of constructing additional railway lines, the government, a year ago, had submitted a proposal to the Indian government seeking financial and technical assistance worth Rs 2.26 billion to revamp infrastructure and expand services of NRC.
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