Home ›› 14 Feb 2023 ›› News
Bangladesh Railways (BR) is trying to complete construction works of at least four major development projects and inaugurate those before the upcoming national election.
Three of these projects have missed several deadlines and construction works continued for more or less ten years.
Railway officials said that Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan had asked them to complete the works before the election by any means as the completion of the projects will help improve the government and the ministry’s image.
The railways have targeted to complete the Akhaura-Laksam Rail Line Project by June, Khulna-Mongla Port Railway Project by August, Chattogram-Dohazari-Cox’s Bazar Rail Project by October and the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project by September.
Officials said all of these projects are at the finishing level. So, the authorities will try their best to complete it within the targeted time.
Padma Bridge Rail Link Project to be completed by September
The 169km Dhaka-Jashore Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, one of the government’s priority projects, will be completed in three parts — from Dhaka to Mawa, from Mawa to Bhanga, and from Bhanga to Jashore. It also includes the construction of stations and other infrastructure. China is financing this project through the G2G method.
The cost of rail connectivity has been estimated at TK 39,247 crores and the deadline for work completion is June 2024. But the authorities are targeting rail movement through Padma Bridge in June this year, before the scheduled time. Project sources said the train will be ready for service by August-September.
Sources at the railways said that the overall progress of the project has been 70.50 per cent while 88.50 per cent of work has been done in the Mawa-Bhanga portion. The work of Bhanga-Jashore portion has been done 62 per cent and 70 per cent in Dhaka-Mawa portion.
The authorities have already constructed 4.75km railway line on the Padma Bridge deck. The remaining 6.15km railway line will be installed in February. The rail line from Mawa to Bhanga will be completed by mid-March and the railway authorities want to run trains on the Mawa-Bhanga section by September.
The authorities have planned to run a new train to Khulna via Padma Bridge soon after the completion of the project.
Md Quamrul Ahsan, director general of Bangladesh Railway, said, “We are making a train operation plan for Padma Bridge. We will bring trains from Khulna or Rajshahi to this route. The train from Khula may ply from Khulna-Rajbari-Bhanga to Dhaka.”
Akhaura-Laksam rail line to open by June
The work of upgrading the Akhaura- Laksam 72km railway line to dual gauge double lines has not been completed in the last nine years. The work was not completed on time due to various complications including errors in the design of the project, closure of construction due to the coronavirus pandemic, and complexity in land acquisition and soil treatment of some land of the project.
The Akhaura-Laksam Double Line Project was approved in December 2014 and the main construction work of the Tk 6,504 crore project commenced in November 2016. The work was supposed to be completed by June 2020 but the deadline was later extended to June 2021. Extending it again for two years, the project has the latest deadline in June this year.
The railway double line section from Laksam to Cumilla was commissioned last year while the portions from Shasidal to Rajapur and from Kasba to Mandbagh were commissioned on February 9. Now the project authorities want to complete the double line on the remaining 33km route by June this year.
Akhaura-Laksam Double Line Project is part of the Dhaka-Chattogram Railway corridor which is a component of the Trans-Asian Railway Network, SASEC, SAARC & BIMSTEC corridors in Bangladesh.
Railway sources said due to objections by the Border Security Force of India they have stopped the construction of a bridge on Salda River. If they fail to resume construction there, the track will be single line.
“We had got a signal from the BSF to go ahead and start work but stopped again. We are not sure if we can start work again. So, there is an option of constructing a single line at Kasba to Mandbagh portion to keep the line okay,” said an official of BR.
Otherwise, BR will see if they can construct an extra line to facilitate the service.
Khulna-Mongla Port rail line to be opened in August
Under the project, 64.75km main line and 21.11km loop line are being constructed from Khulna to Mongla Port by an Indian construction contractor.
The progress of work on the Khulna-Mongla railway line is 97 per cent. The most important part of the railway line, the construction of the railway bridge over the Rupsa River in Khulna has also been completed. The project was started in 2010 with a deadline of three years and got further extensions.
The final deadline was December 2022 and the authorities sought another extension to July 2024. Now the authorities have targeted to complete works by August next, though there are still complications over its design.
Authorities said the problem with Kalurghat Bridge will be solved shortly as well.
Chattogram-Dohazari-Cox’s Bazar rail project to complete by October
The construction work of the Chattogram-Dohazari-Cox’s Bazar-Gumdhum (CDCG) will be completed by October this year.
The project was originally scheduled to be completed in June 2022, but the deadline was extended by two years to June 2024. But the work is in progress in full swing and the project is expected to be completed by October this year.
