Railway ministry seeks two more years

The Ministry of Railways has sought two more years to modernise the Haldibari-Chilahati rail route in a bid to ease transportation of both goods and passengers between Bangladesh and India.

On Sunday, Bangladesh and India revived regular operation of freight trains through the Haldibari-Chilahati rail route after a pause of 56 years.

According to the amendment proposal of the project sent to the Planning Commission, the ministry plans to construct a new loop line along the 7km broad gauge rail line from Chilahati station in Nilphamari to the edge of the border adjacent to the Haldibari station in Cooch Behar of India.

Meanwhile, the existing 4km loop line will also be expanded along with construction of a modern station building in Chailhati.

According to the project proposal, Bangladesh Railway is implementing the project at an estimated cost of Tk 152.71 crore, which will be funded from government exchequer. Although the project was scheduled to be completed by January 2021, the new amendment to the proposal will push the project completion to December 2022. The British-era rail link was shut down in 1965 following the partition of Indian sub-continent.

“We have held a project evaluation meeting on the project and cleared it. We have sent to the executive committee of the national economic council (ECNEC) for approval,” Member of the Physical Infrastructure Division of the Planning Commission MD Mamun Al Rashid said.

The government undertook taken the project to revive the previous Chilahati-Haldibari rail link, he said, adding that it would introduce direct train service from Dhaka to Darjeeling and Siliguri in India.

Once it is implemented, direct train service to be introduced from Dhaka to Darjeeling, Siliguri, Jalpaiguri and New Jalpaiguri.

The rail link between Bangladesh-India is expected to boost bilateral trade and open up new trade opportunities with Bhutan and Nepal.

Under the project, six bridges and Chilahati rail station will be constructed with international standard.

With the new initiative, exports and imports through Mongla port are expected see a rise as the rail link will help increase trade cooperation with north-eastern part of India.

In 2010, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, during a visit to India, took the decision to revive and modernise the rail line.

Both the governments decided to reopen the important Chilahati-Haldibari railway interchange in an Inter-Governmental Railway Meeting (IGRM) held in New Delhi on May 25-27 in 2015.