By Our Correspondent
Janakpurdham, July 19: Pre-testing of Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway completed successfully on Sunday. Nepal Railway Company (NRC) conducted the testing with engine and car-set brought from India.
It said that the train set was operated at the speed of 60 km per hour from Jayanagar to Kurtha of Dhanusha district (35 km distance) and 115 km per hour while returning. It took 35 minutes for the train to reach Janakpur from Jayanagar and 23 minutes to return to Jayanagar.
General Manager of the NRC Guru Bhattarai said that the speed test of the railway track and certification was done after 10 months since Nepal procured a train from Indian state-run company.
Diesel Locomotive of Indian’s East Central Railway conducted the speed testing and certification.
Bhattarai said that the speed test was conducted to know about the current status of the track and it was just a formal process. The railway tracks should be tested to know their status and safety before operating trains there.
NRC said that following the certification from the Indian side, Nepal government would begin the process to operate the cross-border train service. “We are fully prepared to operate the train service. The agenda will be discussed at the minister-level and communicated with the Indian side in order to set the operation date,” said Bhattarai.
NRC has trained about 200 people to run the railway service while Indian human resources are also kept ready.
Two trains were procured by Nepal from India at the cost of Rs. 846.9 million, they had arrived in Janakpur in September 2020.