BD to renovate \\\'non-viable\\\' rail track in Sylhet as India desires

The government has at last decided to reconstruct a 'non-viable' railway track on Kulaura-Shahbajpur route in northeastern Sylhet as per suggestion from New Delhi as the latter wants to use it as a transit mode, officials said Monday.
Bangladesh Railway (BR) has not conducted any feasibility study on reconstructing the railway line up to the Indian bordering area of Shahbajpur before taking up the project, they said.
Economic Relations Division (ERD) officials said the decision had been finalised at a review meeting of the 14 development projects under the India-funded US$ 800 million line of credit (LoC) in Dhaka Monday.
An Indian team, led by Alok K Sinha, participated in the review meeting, the fifth of its kind, on the projects in which Joint Secretary of ERD Mohammad Asif-uz-Zaman took part as the chief of Bangladesh side with the presence of the officials from the project implementing agencies.
"Since both the governments have decided to reconstitute the railway track, we have just discussed the progress of the project implementation. We have tried to remove barriers lying in the way of project executions," Mr Zaman told journalists.
He said the BR was expected to float tender for hiring a design and supervision consultant within this month for implementing the railway project.
Government officials said Bangladesh Railway would reconstruct the 40-kilomtere-long abandoned Kulaura-Shahbajpur metre gauge line into a broad gauge-enabling track aimed at transporting goods between Bangladesh and north-eastern India.
 "Getting pressure from the Indian government, the BR will construct the 40-kilometre-long line with the provision of broad gauge, although the eastern side of Bangladesh has no such line. This is fully an imperfect plan of the Railway authorities. It will not be viable," a government official said.
Bangladesh Railway has undertaken the project at a 'bloated' fund of Tk 5.19 billion, raising the cost by 341 per cent from its earlier Tk 1.17 billion in cost, he said.
Earlier in 2010, BR undertook the Kulaura-Shahbajpur metre gauge line renovation project at a cost of Tk1.17 billion. All the cost was proposed to be borne by the government.
The state-owned railway has now revised the project cost upward to Tk 5.19 billion, seeking Tk 4.46 billion for footing the bill on account of its revised cost from the Indian 'line of credit' and the remaining Tk 729 million from the public exchequer.
A Ministry of Finance (MoF) senior official said the Indian government has conducted the feasibility study on the proposed route and suggested BR to reconstruct it as a broad gauge-enabling line.
He said the proposed Kulaura-Shahbajpur is such a tiny railway route in Bangladesh that it will be not viable at all. "This route has been unutilised for a couple of decades due to its non-viability," he added.
After the review meeting Monday in Dhaka, Asif-uz-Zaman said four projects out of total 14 under the Indian LoC have already been completed.
 "Another four are in the process to be completed soon. Among the six remaining projects, implementation of some has already started and some are in the stage of beginning," he added.
India in August 2010 confirmed US$ 1.0 billion LoC for Bangladesh's development. In early 2013, New Delhi has converted funds worth $200 million from the billion-dollar LoC into grant.
The next review meeting on the development projects under the $800 million LoC is expected to be held in New Delhi in April next year.