SANGAM

Metro rail idea seizes planners

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, JUN 30 - If all goes well, like any other capital Kathmandu also may have a metro rail in the future. Establishment of a Rail and Metro Department is one of the policy issues that the budget planners are brainstorming on for the upcoming budget. 
Finance Minister Surendra Pandey on Tuesday said that a study would be conducted on metro possibility in the Ring Road areas of Kathmandu.  “Imagining Kathmandu as a modern capital city, the feasibility study for the metro rail will be carried out next year,” he said.
According to him, in the first phase the study will be conducted in the Thankot-Budhanilkantha sector and gradually extend to other Ring Road portions. Expenditure for the first phase study will be allocated in the upcoming budget, he said.
The ever increasing traffic woes of the Capital have forced planners to think of mass transportation. The necessity for a separate railway department is also felt along with the feasibility study on East-West Electric Railway being carried out. RITES, an Indian government entity, is currently into initial feasibility study on East-West Electric Highway.
The MoF is currently thinking of three railway lines for the Capital. “There is no option but to go for railway transportation to manage the Capital’s traffic woes,” said a senior MoF official.
Urban planners say the establishment of a railway system in the Capital is technically feasible. However, its economic feasibility needs to be studied. “It is an ambitious project as it needs high investment compared to other public transportation systems,” said Bhusan Tuladhar, technical expert at the Environment and Public Health Organisation (ENPHO).
According to Tuladhar, there is potential for light rail and mono rail in the Capital compared to metro railways. At present, the country has only one operational railway line — the 29-km Janakpur-Jayanagar railway line that links Nepal to India.