The Ministry of Railways has deputed a six-member Railway Board team to Kathmandu from 11–12 June for the 8th Joint Working Group and 10th Project Steering Committee meetings on India–Nepal cross-border railway corridors. Agenda items include land-acquisition hurdles on the 69-km Jaynagar–Bardibas line and final alignment of the 18.6-km Jogbani–Biratnagar link, both critical for moving people and goods between Bihar and southeastern Nepal. The delegation, headed by Executive Director (Traffic Transportation) Avinash Kumar Mishra, will also discuss passenger-service standards, immigration procedures at joint stations and the possibility of through-ticketing that would let Indian pilgrims ride a single train from Varanasi to Janakpur.
![Indian Railways sends delegation to Kathmandu to fast-track cross-border rail links]()
Passengers eager to take advantage of these future cross-border trains will still need to comply with visa and entry regulations. VisaHQ can make that process painless for both Indian and Nepali travelers by providing online application assistance, document pickup, and real-time status updates; its India portal at https://www.visahq.com/india/ consolidates the latest visa requirements and fees so that paperwork is settled long before you reach the station.
Nepal is pushing for Indian technical support to electrify sections that have been built to diesel specifications. Cross-border rail is a strategic mobility enabler: once complete, the Jaynagar–Bardibas route could cut road-journey times by four hours and carry an estimated 300,000 Indian and Nepalese passengers yearly. Logistics firms anticipate new parcel-express services that would shave days off e-commerce deliveries into Nepal’s Terai region. However, procurement delays and monsoon flooding have plagued the projects. Both sides are expected to approve a joint disaster-management protocol and adopt India’s IRCTC e-ticketing backbone for cross-border bookings. Mobility managers should note that initial services may operate as ‘sealed-coaches’ with immigration cleared at origin to avoid long halts at the border. If timelines hold, trial passenger runs could begin by December 2026, providing a rail alternative to overcrowded land crossings at Raxaul–Birgunj and Sonauli–Bhairahawa.
Passengers eager to take advantage of these future cross-border trains will still need to comply with visa and entry regulations. VisaHQ can make that process painless for both Indian and Nepali travelers by providing online application assistance, document pickup, and real-time status updates; its India portal at https://www.visahq.com/india/ consolidates the latest visa requirements and fees so that paperwork is settled long before you reach the station.
Nepal is pushing for Indian technical support to electrify sections that have been built to diesel specifications. Cross-border rail is a strategic mobility enabler: once complete, the Jaynagar–Bardibas route could cut road-journey times by four hours and carry an estimated 300,000 Indian and Nepalese passengers yearly. Logistics firms anticipate new parcel-express services that would shave days off e-commerce deliveries into Nepal’s Terai region. However, procurement delays and monsoon flooding have plagued the projects. Both sides are expected to approve a joint disaster-management protocol and adopt India’s IRCTC e-ticketing backbone for cross-border bookings. Mobility managers should note that initial services may operate as ‘sealed-coaches’ with immigration cleared at origin to avoid long halts at the border. If timelines hold, trial passenger runs could begin by December 2026, providing a rail alternative to overcrowded land crossings at Raxaul–Birgunj and Sonauli–Bhairahawa.
