Railways Development Comes Into Focus in New Fiscal

In the new fiscal, the government has taken on a massive development program to improve the country's rail infrastructure, considering the public-friendly position of railways as a cheap and efficient mode of communication across the country. 

According to the budget document, the construction of 900km of dual rail track and 1,581 km of new rail track will be completed within this fiscal year.

"The refurbishment of 1,527 km of rail and 100 passenger cars, the acquisition of 31 locomotives and the improvement of the signaling system at 222 stations will take part in the present fiscal year," he said.

In addition, the paper adds that measures will be taken to initiate the development of the Dhaka-Chattogram double-track rail line project via Cumilla / Laksam, the Bhanga junction (Faridpur)-Payra rail line project via Barishal, the Navaron-Satkhira-Munshiganj wide-gauge rail line project, and the Dhaka City Circular rail line project.

According to a senior official of the Ministry of Railways, the government has taken a range of steps to ensure the overall growth of this sector. He noted that the execution of the 30-year 'Railways Masterplan (2016-2045)' was at the expense of Tk. Crore 5,53,662 has already started.

"Activities such as the extension of the network, the building of new rail lines and the refurbishment of existing ones, the conversion of rail lines into dual gauges, the renovation of closed rail stations along with new ones, the launch of new trains and the upgrade of the operation of other trains, the procurement of train coaches, etc. have proceeded," he said.

As per the budget document, construction of 25kms of new rail lines, refurbishment of 25kms of old rail lines, construction of 30 new rail bridges, reconstruction of 14 old rail bridges, procurement of 136 new passengers carriages, the introduction of 6 new trains (inc. Benapole Express, Kurigram Express, Jamalpur Express), and expansion of 4 existing train services (Rajbari Express and Dhalarchar Express) have been completed in the last fiscal that ended June 30.

"The implementation of the Dhaka to Padma Bridge Railway Link Project is progressing fast," it reads.

The budget for the development of the railways is Tk 12,491 crore in the 2020-21 fiscal,which was Tk 10,249 crore in the last year's revised budget.

In the meantime, a range of major projects are underway, including the Bangabandhu Sheik Mujibur Rahman tunnel under the Karnaphuli River, the Dhaka Elevated Expressway from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport to Kutubkhali on the Dhaka-Chattogram Highway, to create an interconnected and uninterrupted connectivity network in the country.

According to the document, construction of the Padma Bridge with our own financing is progressing fast. The work on Maowa and Janjira connecting roads and Service Area-2 has already been completed.

"Overall physical progress of the Padma Bridge project up to February 2020 is 78.0 percent; 4.5 kilometers of the bridge has so far become visible."

This also reported that 51 per cent of the construction work of the Bangabandhu Sheik Mujibur Rahman tunnel has already been completed.

In addition, construction work on the 24-kilometer-long Dhaka-Ashulia Elevated Expressway is expected to begin soon.

"There is a plan to carry out a Feasibility Study to construct a tunnel under the Jamuna river connecting Gaibandha and Jamalpur districts," the document said.

Feasibility Studies were carried out to construct five large bridges in the southern part of the country over the Paira River in Patuakhali-Amtali-Barguna road, the Meghna river in Bhulta-Araihazar-Nabinagar road, the Tetulia and Kalabadar rivers to connect the Barishal district with the Bhola district, and the Bishkhali river in Barguna-Patharghata road, and efforts are being made to get finance for their construction.

Some Tk 24,825 crore is allocated to the creation of the road transport and highway division for the 2020-21 fiscal year, while Tk 23,960 crore was allocated to the revised budget of the last fiscal year.