The government has finally decided to reconstruct the financially 'non-viable' Kulaura-Shahbajpur railway track in northeastern Sylhet allegedly to meet the Indian need.
The proposed project remained pending for nearly one year following strong opposition from different government agencies as the rail route would not bring any economic benefit to the country, officials concerned said.
Bangladesh Railway (BR) officials said they would transform the 40 kilometre long Kulaura-Shahbajpur metre gauge (MG) line, which has remained abandoned for long, into a broad-gauge (BG) one enabling transportation of goods between Bangladesh and north-eastern India.
After more than a year, the Planning Commission (PC) has finally completed necessary scrutiny of the project proposal for placing it before the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) for getting approval. The project is likely to be approved soon, PC officials said.
A senior government official told the FE: "As per request from the Indian government, the BR will construct the 40km long line with the provision of BG although the eastern side of Bangladesh has no BG line. This is a fully imperfect plan of the railway. It will not be viable."
The BR has undertaken the project at an estimated cost of Tk 4.29 billion fund, raising the cost by 266 per cent from the previously estimated cost of Tk 1.17 billion cost, he said.
The BR in 2010 had undertaken the Kulaura-Shahbajpur MG line rehabilitation project at a cost of Tk 1.17 billion. All the cost was proposed to be borne by the government.
Later, the BR revised the cost of the project upward to Tk 4.29 billion, seeking Tk 3.62 billion for footing the bill on account of its revised cost from the Indian line of credit and the remaining amount of Tk 672.5 million will be drawn from the public exchequer.
A senior Ministry of Finance (MoF) official said the Indian government has conducted a feasibility study on the proposed route and suggested the BR to reconstruct it as a broad-gauge enabling line.
He said the proposed Kulaura-Shahbajpur is so tiny a railway route in Bangladesh that it will be not viable at all. "This route has remained unutilised for a couple of decades due to its economic non-viability."
A Ministry of Railway (MoR) official said they have sought increased volume of funds from the government since this project has been revised as per government-to-government consensus.
"We can transport imported goods from India easily through the route," he told the FE requesting anonymity.
He said the Indian side has a railway line up to the Mahishashan area, near the Bangladesh border and opposite to bordering Shahbajpur area. "So, the Indian government wants to use the Kulaura-Shahbajpur-Mahishashan route as a transit point for transporting its products."
Another senior government official said: "In the eastern side of Bangladesh including greater Sylhet area has had MG line. But the BR in the near future will construct the BG line. So it is clearly an imperfect plan from the Bangladesh side."
Counsellor (Economic & Project) of the Indian High Commission in Dhaka R Masakui said India is just financing the project that was selected by the Bangladesh government.
"We did not know about the viability of the project. The Bangladesh government can explain about its viability. The Bangladesh government has taken its development projects and we are financing those as per its request," he told the FE.
Mr Masakui said he hoped this project is finally going to start its operation as the BR has already received some bids from the contractors for constructing the 40km railway line on the Kulaura-Shahbajpur route.
Earlier, Ms Chandrima Roy, railway advisor to the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, had said the route would be viable in the near future as goods transportation between the two countries will be easier.
Besides, this corridor has been proposed as the Trans-Asian Railway Network by UNESCAP, she told the FE.
"This will be easy route for the Bangladeshi exporters to transport their goods to the Indian north-eastern states," she said.
Ms Chandrima informed that this project had been taken by the BR as per the joint-statements of the former Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina in September 2011.
