New Delhi expands rail link with Nepal in boost to ‘Neighborhood First’ policy

India and Nepal have seen a boost to cross-border connectivity after a 17km section of a rail line joining the two countries began operations on Sunday. The section is a part of the 69km Jaynagar-Bijalpura-Bardibas project funded by New Delhi in line with its ‘Neighborhood First’ policy, which strives to promote trade, connectivity and people-to-people relations with its South Asian neighbors. 

Nepal’s Minister for Physical Infrastructure and Transport, Prakash Jwala, launched operations on the Kurtha-Bijalpura section of the rail line at a ceremony held at Bijalpura town, near the Indo-Nepali border. India’s deputy chief of mission in Kathmandu, Prasanna Shrivastava, was also present. 

Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had jointly unveiled the e-plaque of the Kurtha-Bijalpura section, which has five stations, in New Delhi on June 1 during the former’s four-day visit to India. Construction work for the project started in 2014 – the year Modi took office – and is being carried out by IRCON, a state-owned company under the umbrella of Indian Railways. Survey work for the last portion up to Bardibas, located in Nepal’s Madhesh province, is in progress. The first phase, the 35km Jaynagar-Kurtha section, comprising eight stations, was opened in April 2022.  India is providing grant assistance of 7.838 billion rupees ($950 million) to the three-phase project. Only 3km of the 69km rail link falls in India, while the rest is in Nepal.

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Janakapur, an integral part of the Hindu epic Ramayana’s pilgrim circuit along with Ayodhya in India’s Uttar Pradesh, falls in the first phase of the rail network. Legend has it that Janaki, another name for the goddess Sita, wife of the Hindu god Lord Ram, was born in Janakpur, about 220km from Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu. The passenger service between Jaynagar, which lies around 4km from the Nepal border to Kurtha, will further encourage cross-border pilgrimage for Hindus, who comprise over 80% of the population in both India and Nepal. 

Minister Jwala praised the Modi administration for its continuous support in the development of infrastructure in Nepal, including in the railway sector. He highlighted that the new rail corridor will provide a boost to people-to-people linkages between the two countries and will enhance trade and tourism in Nepal.

India is already Nepal’s largest trade partner and topped its inbound tourism market last year amid a gradual recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. Tourism plays a key role for the economy of the Himalayan kingdom, which is home to eight of the highest peaks in the world. Data published by the Nepal Tourism Board showed that of the total 614,148 foreign visitors last year, 209,105 were from India, followed by 77,000 and 44,781 from the US and the UK respectively.