Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan on Tuesday inaugurated the test run of a special train from Bhanga to Mawa via the Padma Bridge.
The train began its journey at 1:22pm and reached Mawa at 3:24pm.
Water Resources Deputy Minister AKM Enamul Haque Shameem, Chief Whip of Jatiya Sangsad Noor e Alam Chowdhary, lawmakers Mujibur Rahman Choudhary, Naeem Rajak, Shagufta Yasmeen Amily, Abdus Sobhan Golap and Faridpur Zila Parishad chairman Shahadat Hossain were present.
The first train crossed the Padma Bridge on a trial basis packed with enthusiastic political leaders and activists.
This train, with seven newly imported Chinese coaches, started from Bhanga Station at 1:21pm, reached the approach point in Shariatpur of Padma Bridge at 2:38pm, and the bridge at 2:48pm. It took 16 minutes to cross the 6.15km bridge at a speed of 20km per hour.
The train that crossed Bhanga Junction, Panchor Shariatpur Station and Padma Station finally ended the trial run at Mawa Station at 3:18pm.
Minister Nurul Islam Sujan experienced the trial run along with chief whip and deputy minister for water resources and local lawmakers.
A significant number of political leaders and activists crammed the train amid risk. Though 42.2km track placement work was completed to run the train experimentally, stations between Bhanga and Mawa were not completed.
According to the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, work of four stations, 13 major bridges and four signalling systems was completed.
Progress of the Mawa-Bhanga part is recorded at 91 per cent progress while progress from Mawa to Dhaka was 72.50 per cent and Bhanga-Jashore 68 per cent.
The Bangladesh Railway (BR) has been implementing a PBRL project at a cost of Tk 392.46 billion to establish a totally new rail track from Dhaka to Jashore through the country's longest bridge for developing shorter rail communication with southwestern districts mainly with second port of Mongla.
This expensive project has been implemented with a Chinese government loan amounting to Tk 210.36 billion.
The fast-track project was approved on January 1, 2016, targeting completion by June 30, 2024.
The loan agreement was signed on April 27, 2018, and physical work began on June 3, 2018. China Railway Group limited (CREC) was awarded the work with a contract valued at $3.138 billion. The signing was, however, done on August 8, 2016.
The PBRL project was taken with a major target to run the train through rail-cum-road bridge on the first day of opening. But due to the delayed start of construction, the BR could not launch the train operation on the inaugural day. The trail run took place 10 months after the inauguration of the road part of the bridge on June 25.
Mawa-Bhanga train service to begin in Sept
Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said the passenger train service will run on the Mawa-Bhanga section from September this year after the formal inauguration by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Addressing a press briefing, Sujan said, "Today is a historic moment for Bangladesh. The inauguration of the dream Padma Multipurpose Bridge took place earlier. But there was a drawback as the rail link was not opened at the Padma Bridge.
“It is also going to be completed with the opening of the rail link. As a result, there will be tremendous changes in our rail communication system in the country."
Regarding the complete train service, the minister said the project is scheduled to start in June next year, adding, "By this time, work of the project up to Jashore is supposed to be completed. We are going from Bhanga in Faridpur to Mawa in Munshiganj. We expect to launch the train service from Mawa to Dhaka next September."
