March 17: At a time when the price of diesel has gone up to Rs 130 per liter, the Janakpur-Jayanagar Railway has been operating its trains without passengers spending Rs 18,000 for the fuel.

As per the price adjustment of fuel on Wednesday, diesel will now cost Rs 138 per litre.

Despite spending around Rs 18,000 daily, the train has not started carrying passengers. The trains brought to Nepal 19 months ago are now crossing the border without passengers due to lack of railway law.

However, Nepal has to pay sixteen employees brought from India to operate the train. Nepal Railway Company Limited informed that Rs 518,000 has been spent running a passenger-less train from February 13 to March 14. General Manager of the company Niranjan Jha said that the train consumes 130 liters of diesel daily.

"We have not been able to run the train due to lack of law," Jha said. "But we are running the train even though it is empty." At present, the company has 58 employees, including Indians.

Officials at the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport also point out that the current problem is the lack of law.

The Railway Ordinance 2078 was issued on  May 6, 2021, when there was a lack of law to operate the railways and the parliament was not in session. Seven months after the ordinance became inactive, the Railway Ordinance 2078 was issued on December 1, 2021.

The ordinance could not be passed even after the parliament convened. Therefore, even after 19 months of bringing the train, due to lack of law, the state-owned company has not been abel to operate the trains with passengers.

The government had registered the Railway Act-2076 in the Federal Parliament on January 3, 2020, making arrangements for the establishment of an autonomous body 'Nepal Railway Board' for the operation of railways, fixing of fares, transportation of goods, and late fees. In the meantime, the bill could not be passed despite repeated meetings of the Legislature-Parliament.

As the railway ordinances have become ineffective twice, the government’s investment of Rs 1 billion in the railway has not been able to generate income but is incurring losses instead.