January 20: The operation of the 34-kilometre-long Janakpur (Kurtha) -Jayanagar railway line has been pushed back repeatedly.  However, both the railway line and the trains are in a state of readiness. Two trains, brought from India, are in parking lot since their test operation on September 20.
Nepal Railway Company Limited, the government entity entrusted for operating the railway, has deferred the operation three times.
While buying the train, the company had announced to start operating the trains by mid-November 2020. But the company later pushed the operation date to December 2020.  After two setbacks, the company has now vowed to start it by end of this month.
Guru Bhattarai, general manager of the company, informed that the inauguration of the railway would be held in the presence of the prime ministers of the two countries (Nepal and India). Due to this, the exact timing for operation of the railway has been uncertain, he informed.
Stating that preparations for operating the train are in the final stage, he said, "The date has not been fixed yet as the train will be inaugurated in the presence of the Prime Ministers of Nepal and India." However, the company is preparing to run the train by the end of January.
Although the company has made final preparations to run the trains, the recruitment process for Nepali employees has not started yet. A few days before the train arrived, the company had published vacancy for 129 employees for 29 different posts on September 15.