KATHMANDU, Feb 12: As the Ministry of Finance has secured a source of Rs. 210 million for the operation of Jayanagar-Kurtha railway, the technical testing of the railway is set to begin on 13 February.

General Manager of Nepal Railway Company Niranjan Jha said the process of necessary technical test of the railway is being taken forward after the Finance Ministry secured Rs. 210 billion for the operation of the railway. "We are going to conduct technical tests of the train without passengers from 13 February," Jha said. “The Prime Ministers of Nepal and India are scheduled to inaugurate the railway virtually by the last week of February."

A cabinet meeting held on February 2 called for technical and other infrastructure to operate the train as per the Government to Government (G2G) agreement and decided to provide IRs 220 million. However, that amount was missed in the central budget. The company had also separately demanded Rs 450 million for the operation of the rail service. 

General Manager Jha said that instead of postponing the train service after the inauguration, it would be inaugurated right after testing. “If the train service is postponed after inauguration, it will not send a good message to the public," he said.

Similarly, he said that vegetable markets and shops are still being set up on the railway leak. “Therefore, we are testing the railway to make people aware that trains will regularly operate from now onwards,” Jha said.

The government had bought two trains from India 16 months ago to run on the Jayanagar-Kurtha 34.9 km section at a cost of Rs 840 million without the necessary preparations. The Government of India has constructed the link of 68 km railway at a cost of Rs. 8.77 billion.

 
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