The Janakpur-Jayanagar railway service will come into operation from February 13.
The train service will start once a day from February 13 but passengers will be carried only after it is officially inaugurated, according to General Manager of Nepal Railway Company Niranjan Jha.
The train will operate from Jayanagar to Kurtha of Janakpur Sub-metropolitan City. "The track has not been cleared yet. Shops have been set up at many places, huts have been made. We saw people walking on the track when we went on a trolley for inspection. We are trying to operate without passengers also to know the technical state of the train," Jha added.
The date for formal inauguration has yet to be fixed but it is set to be jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and his Inidan counterpart Narendra Modi. The two leaders are likely to virtually inaugurate it before February end.
A total of 84 staffers including 26 Indian nationals are being trained for operation of the train service.
Two trains were procured from Indian company Konkon Railway at Rs 860 million. The trains were kept unused at the Inarwa railway station in Janaknandini rural municipality of Dhanusha district for around one and a half years.
A 36-kilometer broad-gauge track has already been laid from Jayanagar to Kurtha in the first stage. The 18-kilometer section from Kurtha to Bijalpura of Mahottari will be finished in the second stage and the final 17-kilometer section from there to Bardibas will be completed in the thrid stage.
