Govt keen on Railway Act to fast track projects

KATHMANDU, SEP 15 -

The government has said that enacting an Railway Act through an ordinance is urgent in order to speed up the country’s railway development drive. On Wednesday, it sent its recommendation to endorse the act to President Ram Baran Yadav.

The act, which will be an amendment to the Railway Act 1963, has envisioned forming an autonomous body, the Railway Board, to construct and manage the railway service with legal provisions suited to changing time.

The board will be chaired by the Minister for Physical Planning, Works and Transport Management for making policy level decision.

“We hope to see the ordinance being approved soon as it is purely related with development, not politics,” said Physical Planning Minister Hridayesh Tripathi, addressing a press conference on the progress achieved in last one year by the ministry.

He added that delays in endorsing the ordinance would leave a negative impact on the government which has been working on railway plans with necessary studies.

The government has been working on building east-west and north-south railways, a metro rail in the Kathmandu valley and cross-border railway links with India. However, laws related to railway service have not been updated since the time of the Nepal Government Railway which became history in the mid-1960s.

Despite lack of a proper legal framework, the government has formed the Railway Department, signed an agreement with India to build five cross-border rail links and speeded up a detailed project report (DPR) study for an east-west railway and a feasibility study for a metro train in the capital.

An official at the Physical Planning Ministry said that even though President Yadav is positive about enacting the law through an ordinance, it might take some time as there is a huge backlog.

As construction of railways involves a lot of money, the proposed act has a provision allowing them to be built through public private partnership and other investors from the private sector.

1,180 km of new roads

The government has constructed 1,180 km of new roads in the past year. The road projects include track opening of 103 km of the Mid-Hill Highway, 20 km of the Kathmandu-Tarai Fast Track, 61.5 km of tourism roads, 267 km of regional roads, 37 km of urban roads, 15 km of the Kali Gandaki corridor road and 14.3 km of the Banepa-Sindhuli road. Similarly, 290 km of roads were blacktopped, 407 km upgraded to gravel road and 47 bridges built across the country. “The district headquarters of Manang is now connected by road, and work on the remaining 5 km to Gamgadhi, Mugu is going on,” said Physical Planning Minister Tripathi. Regarding the road expansion drive in the capital, Tripathi said that 60 percent of the Kathmandu valley’s roads needed widening. He added that the government would re-build the widened roads within six months, that is, before the SAARC summit.

Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/09/15/business/govt-keen-on-railway-act-to-fast-track-projects/360270/