Possibilities and Challenges of Railway
in Nepal
Subash Gupta , Shuhbhash@gmail.com, +977-9864421175,Sunil Sapkota , sunilsapkota155@gmail.com,+977-9845822337,
Saroj Kumar Sharma,ss262057@gmail.com,+977-9848011970,SagarAcharya,acharyasagar010@gmail.com,+977-
9867295935,SachinGhimire,ghimiresachin968@gmail.com,+977-9846855975
Tribhuwan University, I.O.E , Western Regional Campus, Department Of Civil Engineering, Lamachaur, Pokhara
Abstract: After the decades of conflict and political
transition , Nepal is going to embark on an
accelerated economic growth for which transport
development has been recognized as one of the core
strategies with an objective of providing some valuable
insights to the policy makers, this paper adopts a
broad brush approach to review the past efforts ,identify
current challenges and opportunity and finally list out
important strategies that would guide Nepal’s transport
development towards sustainable ends. Most importantly,
the paper highlights some of the agenda which can
potentially serve as the coroner stones for sustainable
transport system but not yet properly discussed at the
policy making level. It is expected that the contents of this
paper would serve as a useful reference for the
transport policy maker in Nepal. The study addresses the
factors that determines station location, attributes that
enhance rail use through passenger satisfaction.
Keywords: Possibility and challenges of railway in Nepal,
Case study , Pokhara monorail, Vision
I. Introduction
Being a mountainous and economical weak
country railway transportation is a great challenge
in Nepal. Although being mountainous and rigid
Switzerland has railways even in higher regions. There is
great possibility along with challenges of railway in
Nepal. There is no infrastructure for railway engineering
resulting no skilled manpower in country. The total road
network of the country is 80,078 km. Out of 77 district,
only 67 district head quarter’s roads are linked with all-
weather roads. Another way of transportation is airways.
The country has 1 international airport and 56 domestic
airports. But, airway hasn’t developed completely due to
difficult locations of destiny. Over the next five years, the
government hopes to mobilize US$ 8.2 billion for road
infrastructure, rail connectivity, and transport sector
management. Nepal must promote itself as a profitable
transit destination for goods coming from India,
connecting India and China. Due to the trade
between India and China, this could attract as much as
US$ 70.25 billion per year of business through Nepal. So,
for the benefits of Nepal, the transportation of country
must be developed. The other means of transportation is
Railways. The railway line of Nepal has the total length of
57 km out of which only 5 km is currently operating. If the
government can develop the railway in Nepal, then
it won’t take time for this small country to be developed.
For a landlocked country like Nepal, a rail network
because of its low cost of operation should be of prime
importance, both for domestic and international routes. In
these present days, the present urban transport system is
not appropriable inefficient and environmentally
unfriendly. Kathmandu valley, that includes the capital
city as well as other emerging cities, has a population of
about 4 million and even more commuters
and Kathmandu desperately needs to develop sustainable
mass transit systems to address the needs for increased
mobility and to reduce fuel dependence for which Railway
is one of the projects is also been planned. The Raxaul-
Amlekhagunj of length 39 kilometres and Jayanagar-
Janakpur-Bijalpura, two short distance 2 ft 6 in (762 mm)
narrow gauge railways were built by British in 1927.
Currently, Nepal Railway Company is dedicated to
constructing 53 kilometers of railway track — 32 km
from Jaynagar in India to Janakpur in Nepal and 21 km
from Janakpur to Bijalapur.
II. History of Nepal Railway Corporation
The Nepal Railways Corporation Ltd. is the
corporation which is owned by the Nepalese
Government which maintains and operates two railway
lines which are Raxaul-Sirsiya line and the Jainagar-
Janakpur line. The line from Raxaul in India to Sirsiya is
6KM in length which acts as Dry Port near Birganj in
Nepal which is primarily used for freight transport. And,
the line from Jaynagar in India to Janakpur in Nepal is 5
Km in length which is primarily used for pass//get
transport. During the Rana regime, the Raxaul-
Amlekhagunj section of Nepal Government Railway
was introduced in Nepal. It was built as a 2 ft 6 in narrow
gauge railway. In 1927, 9 KM long railway was built by
British which allowed people from different areas of the
country to reach Amlekhganj and to get Lorries to
Bhimphedi and from Bhimphedi, people have to reach
Kathmandu on foot. The railway was later closed down. In
1998, two ZDM-5 diesel locomotives were donated by
Indian Railway to Nepal Railways. In 2004, the Kolkata –
Raxaul – Sirsiya broad gauge line started operations as an
Inland Port. Also, The Jayanagar-Janakpur Line was built
as 2 ft 6 in narrow gauge railway which was
also introduced during the Rana period. The Jayanagar-
Janakpur-Bijalpura line is under the gauge conversion to
1,676 mm with an extension to Bardibas in the current
days. By the Indian railways, the length of 1676 Km with
1,000 mm meter gauge railway track from Raxaul was
converted to 1,676 mm for the connection to Sirsiya
Birgunj. In the year 2005, the railway fully came in
operation. Until 2014, the Nepal Railway lines used 1,676
mm (5 ft 6 in) gauge lines until 2014. But in the year 2014,
the Nepal Railway was closed down so that the Nepal
Railway Corporation could upgrade the track by the
financial aid of Indian railways.
A. First Railway in Nepal
The first railway in Nepal was the Nepal Government
Railway. It was established in The railway linked
Amlekhganj with Raxaul across the border in India in the
south. The railway was 47 km long with 2 ft 6 in narrow
gauge. In 1923, A short narrow gauge railway was built by
J. V. Collier of Indian Forest Service for the transportation
of Nepalese timber to India. Rana Prime minister
assigned Collier to manage the forest department in Nepal.
To construct the light railway from the north border to
Amlekhgani, Martin and Co. of Kolkata conducted the
survey in 1924.
III. Challenges of Railway in Nepal
Nepal is economically weak country due to
which budget allocation for railway is difficult. Due to
internal and external political interference the government
is unable to give proper reasonable decision in time. Here
is no infrastructure for study of railway engineering , no
trainers and no workshop. Nepal is dependent on foreign
countries for budget , it couldn't construct project of
it's own. Government doesn't give more emphasis for
railway rather than other transport system. Nepal has more
than 85% hilly and mountainous region such topography
isn't suitable for railway. There is no big construction
industries which can complete the project solely.
Landslide is a common disaster to be faced in Kerung
which cvonnects Nepal with China. Retail competition is
limited by the structure of franchised passenger services,
through which the governments in Nepal choose to
procure a socially-desirable level of train services which
the market would not necessarily provide. Franchisees are
regulated through contracts by the Department for
Transport acting as wholesale procurers of rail services.
Corruption is a great problem in Nepal which affects the
developmental works like as railway constructions Every
year terrain Nepal suffers from heavy floods due to which
the proposed fields for the railway track will get damaged
.Similarly , Nepal falls on 11th danger zone of earthquake
so that the tunnels and high stations bridge specially in
mountainous region may collapse .
IV. Vision
The overall goal of the railway sector is the
construction and expansion of a safe, reliable and demand
responsive rail service to the people connecting
international world and the operation and management in
timely and appropriate way for making world class service
to grow in aggregate of social, economic development.
This vision should be gained with low cost and with
efficient development, expansion and management of
railway infrastructures. The country’s overall (socio-
economic) development including greater access and
growth to sustainable development and the proper
management of the railway service is the vision of the
railway sector Proceeding with the construction,
expansion and management of railway network, providing
sustainable and capableservice, connecting East-West and
an important industrial, commercial, tourist towns into
national railway networks and connecting with railway
service through possible boarders of Indian and Chinese
(Tibet), to provide the facility by railway service in
international business including agriculture, tourism,
water resources, industry, trade and natural resource
development and to increase the service is the vision of the
development of railway network. The main goal of
the development and expansion of rail service is to
contribute to improve people’s daily living by travelling
people and transportation goods but means of Cheap,
reliable, safe, efficient rail service

V. Possibilities

For the developing and mountainous countries

like Nepal transportation has been the key factor for the
enhancement of the nation so that the transportation factor
should be developed in a rapid way. For this water
transportation is easiest and the cheapest way but it is not
possible in landlocked country like Nepal. Hence, the
railway transport is one of the alternative. After the
establishment of Nepal Railway Corporation(NRC) in
2011 the possibilities of railway transport are ongoing.
Some of the are as follows: Government of Nepal has
completed the feasibility study on East-West and
Kathmandu-Pokhara electric railway having total length
of 1317.5 km

Mechi-Mahakali ≈945 km
fig. no. 1
Tamasariya-Bharatpur-Abukhaireni ≈ 72 km

Pokhara – Kathmandu ≈ 187 km

Connections to Indian Border Towns ≈ 113.5 km

But the section between Nijgadh to Tamasariya has

proposed to change connecting Hetauda and Bharatpur.
The length of the section shall change accordingly. The
construction of embankment and other structures has
already been started.

VI. Case Study

Kathmandu-Pokhara Railway Project For the

convenient and more detailed specification of this project
we have chosen a case study of Kathmandu-Pokhara
Railway Project. In this case study we focused on,
location, Salient features, project details, & cost
estimation.

A. location: Pokhara-Damauli-Abukhaireni-Kathmandu

Fig. no. 2
 VII. Proposed Project: Pokhara Monorail

B. Salient Features A. Location: Pokhara City

• Length : 187.083 km Due to ongoing construction of international airport and

• No of Bridges : 42
• Longest Bridge : 1295 m (Madi Nadi)
• No of Tunnels :44 (107.277 km)
• Longest Tunnel: 14.525 km
transit point of Pokhara, we have chosen the main station
at chauthe. It passes to the Int’l mountain museum-lake
side area-Srijana chowk-Bindhabasini-Manipal-Phulbari-
Matepani-Industrial area & finally to the main station.
Similarly, the route connects two bridges at Narayansthan
and Nagdhunga. Total length of the rail track is estimated
to be 33 km .

C. Project Details

Geographical
Kathmandu-Dhading-Gorkha-
location
Tanahun-Nuwakot-Kaski
(Districts)

Office of investment board and

Lead
Department of Railway of
Government
Physical infrastructure and
Agency
transport

Project Cost Pokhara to kathmandu:2830

(USD) million

Progress Feasibility study

Project Land
151 ha of forest
Required

Fund of
Public Private Partnership
investment

D. Expected Fiscal benefits Fig. no, 3

• Establishment of physical infrastructure

• Creation of employment opportunities

• Better connectivity

• Development of industrial competitiveness

• Reduction of traffic congestion B. Salient Features

• Improvement of road safety I. Length =33 km
• Reduction of pollution 2.No. of bridges: 2

3.No. of stations =8
C. Project Details

Geographical
Pokhara City
Location

Chauthe-Ratopairo-Lakeside-
srijanachowk-Bindabasini-
Major stations
Manipal-Fulbari-Matepani-
Industrial Estate-Chauthe

Project Land
Pokhara city
Required

Progress Feasibility study

D. Benefits

Aftermath of our project various benefits can be obtained.

One among them is that it creates greater employment
opportunities for both skilled and unskilled labour. It also
provides administrative facilities to the government. It can
be recognized as a most affordable transport so ,it can
serve as a public welfare. The carrying capacity of railway
is extremely large along with its safety. It is economical,
quicker and best suited for carrying heavy and bulky
goods over long distance. As it is least effected by weather
conditions compared to others so ,it is most dependable
mode of transport. It is better organized as it is scheduled
fix and it saves a lot of time and money.
References

www.mopit.gov.np

www.ibn.gov.np

www.imnepal.com

www.slideshare.net

www.googlemap.com