Acting on the request of the Ministry of Labor and Transport Management, the Ministry of Physical Planning and Works (MoPPW) will renovate the dilapidated bridge along the railway line, which was destroyed by floods few years back. Likewise, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MoHA) will implement a special security plan to for the security of passengers and their goods.
Jay Mukunda Khanal, spokesperson at the MoHA, said the ministry had already written to the Police Headquarters to make necessary arrangement to beef up security at the railway.
The MoLTM, on September 20, had made a formal request to the MoHA to depute at least 10 personnel from Armed Police Force (APF) to ensure security of the passengers and goods and control the tendency of traveling without tickets.
The railway has been suffering from the growing trend of people traveling without tickets. In the absence of efficient security arrangement to make it mandatory for people to travel with tickets, the railway management is currently collecting around Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000 as revenue from fare. By deploying the APF personnel, the management plans to check the practice of unauthorized traveling.
“If we succeed in plugging this leakage, we can immediately increase revenue by three-fold of what we are generating now,” stated Baburam Acharya, secretary, MoLTM.
Though The MoHA has agreed to step up at the railway, it has declined MoLTM request to depute APF personnel. Instead, it will be mobilizing Nepal Police personnel for the purpose. "We have already instructed the Nepal Police headquarters to depute necessary police force for the purpose," said Khanal.
The MoLTM felt the necessity of deputing security personnel in the country´s sole railway line after its high-level study team concluded that the trend of traveling without ticket and smuggling of goods through 51-km long railway was increasing. The study also found that the passengers were feeling insecure and that there was lack of a mechanism for the safety of the goods and property of the railway.
The MoPPW is supporting the MoLTM for the renovation of Bighi River Bridge in the railway´s Bijalpura section. The bridge was destroyed by floods in 2001, limiting the service of the railway line to just 29 km. The MoPPW is preparing to request the Ministry of Finance to allocate fund for the renovation of the damaged bridge.
"We will make necessary arrangement for design and select contractors if a new bridge has to be constructed. But if the bridge is operable through repairs, we will start the work immediately,” Tulsi Prasad Sitaula, the joint secretary at the MoPPW, said.
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