BR to buy 150 coaches by 2015
FHM Humayan Kabir | Saturday, 19 April 2014
The government will procure 150 passenger carriages for the Bangladesh Railway (BR) to upgrade the country's struggling railway fleet with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), officials said Friday.
The Ministry of Railways (MoR) officials said they will procure the passenger carriages by next year to upgrade BR services.
Economic Relations Division joint secretary Saifuddin Ahmed said, "We are hopeful of signing the loan deal by August, and make the fund available to BR for purchasing the new carriages.
"We have discussed the carriage procurement project with ADB. The development partner has assured us of bankrolling our project. It will provide US$100 million in loans," a senior official told the FE.
"If the fund from ADB is confirmed, we will go for tendering to import the carriages which would enrich our fleet."
Under the $430 million Multi-trance Financing Facility programme, the Manila-based lender will finance $100 million for the carriage procurement, he added.
Under the programme, ADB has already provided $280 million in loans in two tranches to upgrade the Tongi-Bhoirab Bazar track into a double-line one, and improve signalling system on Ishwardi-Darshana and Ishwardi-Sirajganj lines.
The last government invested a total of Tk 103.71 billion between the financial year (FY) 2009-10 and 2012-13 under the Annual Development Programme (ADP) to upgrade railway services, MoR officials said.
BR has undertaken 14 projects with US$670 million worth aid under the Indian $1.0 billion dollar LoC.
Previous governments shelved different proposals to buy locomotives, coaches and wagons, rehabilitation of tracks, and improve signal systems. As a result, BR has been struggling for the last few decades with its poor service due to old and limited number of locomotives, passenger carriages and tracks, and shortage of manpower, said officials.
The number of railway passengers has increased over the years, while the number of BR locomotives has declined to 255 from 486 in 1971.
BR is unable to meet the demand for carrying goods to and from Dhaka and Chittagong, main lifeline of the economy, due to scarcity of locomotives and wagons, they added.