The operation of Nepal-India Cross Border Railway continues to remain uncertain as Nepal Railway Company has failed to recruit staff required to run the railway service.

The government, on December 1, introduced an ordinance for the second time paving the way for setting up institutional and operational mechanisms such as formation of railway board, appointment of administrative chief and railway staff, and fare determination mechanism.

But no concrete step has been taken to hire the staff required to work in track stations as signal staff and to perform other tasks integral to the operation of railway service.

The ordinance governing the railway operation was an important step towards the resumption of railway service on the Kurtha-Jayanagar section of the cross-border railway. Nepal and India signed a standard operating procedure for the railway service in early October. The Indian contractor, IRCON International Ltd, officially handed over the Kurtha-Jayanagar section of the railway infrastructure to Nepal in late October.

Niranjan Jha, general manager of Nepal Railway Company, told the Post that they have not yet started the staff hiring process because of the uncertainty about the company's budget.

“Our board has not passed the company’s annual budget. Until a budget is approved, we cannot hire staff or sign contracts,” said Jha.

He said that the budget endorsement was delayed after the Finance Ministry notified the company that no budget has been allocated for the company.

“The ministry has written to us suggesting that we spend the existing resources in our account for now. But without a budget being endorsed by our board, we cannot spend,” Jha said.

The railway company plans to convene its board meeting some time this week to pass the budget in order to hire the railway staff. The company plans to hire around 150 staff for now. Jha said the staff would be hired on a daily wage basis as the company has not been allowed by the Public Service Commission to appoint contract employees.

In order to operate the railway service, Jha said the company has also sent a letter to Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd in India to send its crew members and signalling staff to look at the two train sets that remain parked in Janakpur for more than a year and to see if the track requires maintenance.

As per the agreement signed between the two companies, Konkan Railway Corporation Ltd, which had supplied the two train sets to Nepal, will assign 26 staff, including crew members, to operate the rail service for a year.

The two sides had signed a INR 220 million (Rs350 million) agreement for the procurement of the locomotives, human resources supply, rail and track maintenance and other operating systems.

Jha said Nepal Railway Company has already sent around Rs70 million to the Indian company as advance payment.

“There is an urgency to hire staff of our own for the time being since the Indian staff will also be arriving and we have to start paying them,” Jha said.

Earlier, the Ministry of Physical Infrastructure and Transport had instructed the company to hire at the earliest the staff required to operate the railway service.

Keshav Kumar Sharma, joint secretary at the ministry, told the Post last month that the ministry had directed the company to immediately hire the staff.

The urgency to hire the railway staff was spurred partly because the current company administration got rid of the trained staff members who were appointed by the former administration, saying that they were ‘political appointees’.

Prior to their removal, the then general manager of the company, Guru Prasad Bhattarai, had also resigned.

Deepak Kumar Bhattarai, director general at the Department of Railways, told the Post that it is the responsibility of the railway company to operate the railway service by hiring the staff.

“The department has completed two major tasks—signing of standard operating procedures and taking over the railway infrastructure handed over by the Indian contractor. The railway ordinance has also been issued at the initiative of the Physical Infrastructure Ministry,” said Bhattarai. “Now, the company has to hire the required staff and start the railway service in coordination with the Indian authorities.”

Officials at Nepal Railway Company, meanwhile, are not sure when the railway service will come into operation.

“Our target is mid-January next year. But it all depends on when the board will endorse the budget so that we can hire staff,” said Jha, the general manager.