The much-awaited Janakpur-Jayanagar railway track is being tested for train speed on Sunday. The test will be conducted at a speed of 120 kilometers per hour.

Guru Bhattarai, general manager of Nepal Railway Company, informed that the speed test and verification of the railway track will be done in connection with the pre-operation preparations.

According to him, the work of ‘speeding’ and ‘certification’ of railway links will be done. He said, “Track speed testing is an important process before operating a train service. As the speed of the train is 120 km per hour while testing the speed, safety is important on the railway track.”

He said, “If there is no problem in the railway track from Jayanagar to Janakpur during the test, the Indian railway company will hand over the certificate to Nepal Railway Company Limited saying that the Janakpur-Jayanagar railway track is suitable and safe for the operation of the railway service.”

General Manager Bhattarai, through his social media, has requested common people around the railway track not to gather a crowd or leave animals, bicycles, motorcycles, children near the track and to maintain distance from the track. Bhattarai has warned that any person responsible for any accident and action will be taken according to the law.

The two trains purchased by the Nepal government from India for Rs. 846,595,000 through the G2G (Government to Government) process had arrived at Janakpur Railway Station last year. The train, which can run back and forth, is now covered with a tent at Janakpur’s Inarwa station under the supervision of the Armed Police Force.

The 1,300-seat capacity train will currently operate within a distance of 35 km from Janakpur-Jayanagar-Kurtha. Later, there is a plan to run the train to Bardibas via Bijalpura in Mahottari.

The Raxaul-Amalekhgunj railway service was first launched in Nepal in 1927 A.D. with the help of the British government. Then in 1937, the train ran from Jayanagar-Janakpur to Bijalpura in Mahottari, which was called the first narrow-gauge train in Nepal. That train service was limited to Jayanagar-Janakpur from 2001 and was closed from January 2015.

After that, with the financial support of the Government of India, a railway has been under construction for six years for broad-gauge train service from Jayanagar to Bardibas via Janakpur. The construction of the railway from Jayanagar to Kurtha via Janakpur has been completed. But in September last year, only the Janakpur-Jainagar train service was started.