PM Modi To Inaugurate Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway Line Connecting Nepal And India In December 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to visit Nepal in December to inaugurate the Janakpur-Jayanagar railway line connecting the country to India. The line, reports say, has remained non-functional for the last three years.

The Janakpur-Jayanagar line, which is around 50 km long, is the only railway link between Nepal and India. Services on the line were discontinued in 2014.

It underwent a successful test operation in August. According to the Business Standard, a railway engine with 53 bogies covered a distance of 8.5 km from Jayanagar in Nepal to Khajuri in India during the test run.

The government is reported to have spent Rs 700 crore for the upgrade of the track and development of infrastructure along the route.

“Talking about the progress, we are inching towards the completion. It will come under operation from the Biwaha Panchami,” Mukesh Kumar Yadav, Site Supervisor of the Janakpur- Jayanagar Railway told ANI in September 2017. “The task of ground work has been completed, the work of the culvert is almost complete and the bridge is also in its final stage of completion,” he added.

The locals, who depend on the link for travel to India, have welcomed the upgrade of the track and its operationalisation.

“It is a matter of happiness for us, it will be good for the people as they come here and go there. People from there (India) comes here and people from here go there (India). It would be good for the people in the Janakpur, the poor ones,” Mithilesh Yadav, who lives near the line, was quoted as saying.

According to Sputnik Correspondent Rishikesh Kumar, a wedding procession may also travel with the Prime Minister to the Janki Mandir in Janakpur. Modi is likely to participate in the Vivaha Panchami, a festival celebrating the wedding of Lord Rama and Sita. It is believed that the two got married here.