Bangladesh's prime railway corridor on Dhaka-Chattogram route linking up to Cox's Bazar maritime frontier is being upgraded for enabling train movement at desired speeds and with increased traffic.
"Under a feasibility-study project, Bangladesh Railway (BR) has already identified the missing links needed to be integrated with the existing lines," said one official familiar with the scheme.
Some works of upgrading have been done on the 325-kilometre corridor along the country's commercial lifeline, which also connects outer world for routing trade.
Sources say "for a lack of consistency in such development works in- between the tracks, the BR has been unable to utilise the main corridor to its full capacity for passengers and freights by maintaining train-speed level of 80 kilometres per hour".
BR officials said the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had already assured of funding some parts of the corridor upgrade and included three projects into its pipelines to invest in next three years, starting next fiscal year (FY).
According to the study -- titled Dhaka-Chattogram-Cox's Bazar rail projects preparatory facility -- 123 kms from Laksam to Chinkiastana, 95 kms from Tongi to Akhaura and 50 kms from Chattogram to Dohazari need to be developed into dual-gauge double-line route to match with the works done in other parts of the corridor.
The BR has developed two separate dual-gauge double lines and is now constructing 3rd and 4th line from Dhaka to Tongi.
Also under construction is dual-gauge double line from Tongi to Joydevpur as well as from Akhaura to Laksam.
But the route has missing links from Tongi to Akhaura, Laksam to Chinkiastana and Chattogram to Dohazari.
Dual-gauge double line means development of two rail tracks having both metre-and broad-gauge lines.
It is also implementing signalling-system-upgrading works targeting to withdraw stoppages to make trains pass on other section.
The officials said an ADB mission visited the country in February and assured of funding 95km Tongi-Akhaura line in the current fiscal year, 50km Chattogam-Dohazari track excluding Kalurhat bridge in 2022 and 123km Laksam-Chinkiastaana line in the current year.
The cost estimated for the Tongi-Akharua section is Tk 140.58 billion, Laksam-Chinkiastana Tk 156.19 billion and Chattogram-Dohazari Tk 130 billion
Sources said Tk 156.19-billion cost has been estimated for the Chattogram-Dohazari line development including construction of the Kalurhat bridge with both rail and road facilities. But the replacement of the British-era-old rail-cum-road bridge with the new one has long been dealt with the financial support from Korea.
The BR included the feasibility study of the Kalurhat bridge into the preparatory-project-facility project recently to conduct the study for a second time as six years have already elapsed since the first FS was done.
The BR has already started construction of the rail tracks from Dohazari to Cox's Bazar with dual-gauge provision but single-line one but its line from Chattogram to Dohazari remains metre-gauge single- track one.
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