Home ›› 17 May 2023 ›› News
The Bangladesh Railway (BR) has taken initiative to renovate century-old Kalurghat Bridge over the River Karnaphuli in Chattogram again to facilitate Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar train service scheduled to be launched in September this year.
Primarily, the bridge, which was built in 1931, will be made fit for train operation with heavy engines and lift the current speed limit of 10 kmph. Trains will use this bridge until a new bridge is built, BR officials said.
The BR has already floated a tender which will be opened on Wednesday for evaluation. “If we get expected response from the contractors, after evaluation, we will issue work order to start renovation work from June this year,” said Md. Abu Jafor Mia, Chief Engineer (East) of BR.
Over the years, this bridge went under several repair works to keep it functional. Currently, trains have a speed limit of 10 kmph on the bridge. “We want to increase the speed to 50-60 kmph as well as increase loadbearing capacity,” he said.
Vehicles have been using the metre-gauge single-line rail bridge as well after it was reconfigured in 1962.
This bridge has been repeatedly renovated and maintained with braces. In 2004, major renovation work was done on this bridge at a cost of Tk 10 crore. At that time, traffic on the bridge was stopped for 11 months. In 2018, a span was damaged by a ship collision. At that time, it was closed for two days and repaired at a cost of Tk 50 lakh. Before this, the bridge was renovated in several phases.
During the upcoming renovation, vehicles will use ferries which will be launched shortly.
The bridge came into discussion after the government took Chattogram-Dohazari-Cox's Bazar Rail Link project to operate passenger train on the Dhaka-Cox's Bazar route. This bridge is a part of the project.
Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan on Tuesday said that the route will be opened by September and the bridge will not create problem as the renovation work will be completed before trains start operating.
Asked, how the authorities would complete renovation works before September as the contractor has not been appointed yet, the BR Chief Engineer said they will make the bridge workable first. “We will increase load capacity first. This will be done before September and the rest of works will be completed within six more months.”
To renovate the old bridge, a BUET expert team was assigned to assess the works to be done. The consultant team pointed out major defects and explained the way-out of repairing.
The expert team found that out of the main 19 spans of the bridge, 8 were in very bad condition. They recommended urgent overhaul and asked the authority to close the bridge during the renovation.
Recently, the Ministry of Railways held an inter-ministerial meeting to introduce ferry service for the vehicles which are currently using the century-old bridge.
Road Transport and Highways Division informed the Railway Ministry that they have completed all preparations to start ferry service with three ferries and two pontoons during the bridge’s renovation. Two of the ferries will be in a round-the-clock service while one will be kept in reserve.
In 2014, the government decided to build a new bridge and decommission the century-old Kalurghat Bridge. The initial cost was estimated at Tk 1,163.27 crore.
The estimated cost later climbed up to Tk 14,000 crore for changes in designs, repeated feasibility studies and price hikes of construction materials.
The construction work of the new bridge is expected to be completed by 2028 and till then, Kalurghat Bridge will need to be kept workable.
