The Bhanga-Jashore section of the Padma Rail Link Project is expected to be inaugurated by the end of October next, establishing a 172-kilometre direct link between Dhaka and the south-western districts.
Project officials said work on the 87km section would complete by September next and the tentative schedule for its inauguration was set based on the green signal from the Chinese contractor of the project.
However, the inaugural schedule would be finalised any day between the end of October and first week of November subject to confirmation of the Prime Minister's presence, Director General of Bangladesh Railway Sardar Shahadat Ali said on Sunday.
The country's longest road-cum-rail bridge was opened for road traffic on June 26, 2022 but train operations through the rail track from Dhaka to Bhanga was inaugurated on October 10, 2023.
Earlier, BR had set the completion date of the second part by June and Railway Minister Zillur announced to inaugurate it in July (this month).
Sources said the project implementation committee discussed the project status at a meeting with the contractor last week and decided the tentative schedule.
The BR took the Tk 392.47 billion fast track project in 2016 to establish the rail link on both sides of the 6.15 km Padma Bridge after signing a commercial agreement with Chinese Railway Group Limited.
Though the government had planned to open both rail and road communication from day one, it was delayed due mainly to the fund crisis as clearance from the Chinese Exim Bank took two more years till April, 2018.
The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council approved the project at a cost of Tk 349.89 billion on 03 May 2016.
The trial run of the train from Bhanga to Jeshore was conducted on March 30. After completion of the work, the BR train operation speed can be increased to 120 km per hour but it still has challenges to start operation due to lack of manpower and trains.
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