Dhalkebar, in Dhanusha district, is the road gateway to Janakpur — the point on Nepal’s east–west Mahendra Highway where travellers turn south for Sita’s city. That crossroads role has made it a busy ribbon of transport, trade and bus traffic.
It is also a name known to power engineers on both sides of the border: the Dhalkebar substation anchors the high-voltage Dhalkebar–Muzaffarpur transmission line, the artery that carries electricity between India and Nepal — a very modern expression of the old Mithila link across the frontier.