Govt plans feasibility studies for two railway lines

THE government has drawn up a plan to carry out feasibility studies for two railway lines linking Kathmandu with Tarai and the border of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) of China. The plan has been outlined to link Nepal, India and China with railway networks to develop the country as a major transit point between the two economic giants. The government has listed the task of conducting feasibility studies of two railway networks in its “to do list” among other works related to the railway development. The studies of railway lines got priority with India supporting Nepal to build cross-country railway lines connecting Tarai. India has pledged support to Nepal to construct five cross-country railway lines in Tarai which will link Nepal with the Indian railway network. Following repeated requests from Nepal, China has agreed to consider extending the Qinghai-Tibet Railway to its bordering areas. The planned extension of the Qinghai railway includes 253-km line linking Lhasa to Shigatse in southern TAR, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year. While the plan has been listed in the annual programme published by the National Planning Commission, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport which oversees the railway affairs seems less interested in conducting the study, arguing that low budget allocation for the sector would make it hard for them to start the task. “Since it takes less fund and time, we might go for the pre-feasibility of a railway line linking the Capital with Kerung transit,” said Tulasi Prasad Situala, secretary at the ministry. Shigatse lies at the foothills of Mt Everest, and it is 750m away from Kerung and 600m from Khasa (Tatopani). Sitaula added that they have not reached to any concrete decision yet on carrying out the new feasibility study for establishing railway link between Kathmandu and Tarai. In 2006, the ministry had signed an agreement with Benchmark Nepal, a local firm for developing Kathmandu-Birgunj railway based on the public-private partnership. But the company has not yet submitted the feasibility report. The company had signed the agreement with the government under the BOOT law. A source at the ministry said that as the agreement period had already expired, they were not corresponding with Benchmark Nepal. “The government’s plan on feasibility studies are just ‘populist ones’ as they were incorporated without taking into account the ground reality,” the source added. In the budget for the current fiscal year, the government has allocated Rs 1.45 billion for the railway and metro development. The resources will be utilised for railway sector works that include compensation to the land owners along the Biratnagar-Jogmabi and Janakpur-Bardibas railway links, carrying out a detailed project report (DPR) of different sections of the Mechi-Mahakali Electric Railway, starting planned construction of 108- km long Bardibas-Simara stretch of the Mechi-Mahakali railway and public utility relocations, according to the ministry officials.