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PHOTOS | Reviving the colonial-era Nepal-India railway link
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Train driver Rafid Kabadi, 49, poses for a photograph with his grandson in front of an abandoned train that he used to drive in Janakpur, Nepal. Shrubs have sprung around the rusted train engine in mute testimony to years of neglect suffered by an abandoned railway line.First built as a cargo line to carry wood from Nepal to India in 1937, it was once the lifeblood of the community in Janakpur. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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First built as a cargo line to carry wood from Nepal to India in 1937, it was once the lifeblood of the community in Janakpur, running 29 km (18 miles) from Jainagar in India’s neighbouring eastern state of Bihar. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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Now the only sign of life is laughing children, who chase each other through the disintegrating carriages, climbing on rusting benches and tumbling over one another. (Navesh Chitrakar / Reuters)
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A locomotive builder's plate is pictured on the engine of an abandoned train at the workshop of Nepal Railways Corporation Ltd. in Janakpur. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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Travellers have been forced to use buses instead, paying three times the price of a train ticket for a journey four times as long, which is complicated further during the monsoon rains that make the roads muddy. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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Indian labourers work on part of a bridge for the new railway in Janakpur. The revamp of the railway, set to be completed next March, presents clear signs of renewal and the improvements to come. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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Rucksacks hang on the wall of the ticket office at Janakpur railway station. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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Tula Bahadur Dangi, 49, acting general manager of Nepal Railways Corporation sits inside his quarters in Nepal. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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Construction is nearly 80 percent complete, with stations and bridges built, and land levelled to lay tracks, extending the track to Bardibas in the north, a distance of 69 km (43 miles) away, with a total of 14 stations on the route. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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The expansion will create 350 jobs, with plans for a museum to showcase the old German-made abandoned carriages and engines. The expanded route would also make it easier for tourists to visit the Ram Janaki temple, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which devout Hindus believe to be the birthplace of the goddess Sita. (Navesh Chitrakar / REUTERS)
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