Flood damage to Cox's Bazar railway line a lesson to learn

CHATTOGRAM, Aug 14 (bdnews24.com): The Chattogram-Cox's Bazar railway line, one of the prioritised projects by the government, is 87 per cent complete and expected to start running trains in September. The recent flooding in the area has, however, damaged the tracks as soil and pebbles were swept away by floodwaters. In some areas, it has made the tracks uneven.
Despite the damage, the test run of trains between Chattogram and Cox's Bazar will not be postponed, said Project Director Mofizur Rahman.
But the flood damage would be a 'good lesson' for the authorities working on similar projects in the future to learn, he said.
The Satkania, Chandanaish and Lohagara Upazilas in Chattogram were submerged in record downpours and flash floods in the past week. The rail tracks at Temuhuni in Satkania were damaged as the waters washed away soil and pebbles.
Before the ADB-funded rail line was constructed, an international organisation conducted a feasibility study, and the rail tracks were built according to expert recommendations, said Bangladesh Railway officials. The adverse weather, however, has caused trouble.
Floodwaters damaged at least 450 metres of the railway line, said Mofizur. The contractor company will repair the line, he said. He believed the incident of adverse weather was nothing unusual. "These incidents not only happen on the Cox's Bazar railway line, but in Chattogram, Dhaka, Sylhet, and other regions as well," he said.
The project has been implemented considering the impact of adverse weather, the project director said. "We did a feasibility study calculating the highest records of rainfall in the past 100 years. Hence, the rail line is 20 feet high."
"It's very hard to say when nature will unleash its wrath. The Bangladesh Meteorological Department and the Water Development Board said there was no record of such rainfall in the last 100 years."
Therefore, the flood caused by heavy rainfall is a 'good lesson' to learn, he said. "We should be prepared, not only for this rail line but also for other upcoming ones."
Currently, railway tracks exist up to Chattogram's Dohazari. Now a 101-kilometre single-line dual-gauge railway track from Dohazari to Cox's Bazar via Ramu is under construction. It will ensure rail connectivity of Cox's Bazar, the key tourist city, with the rest of the country.
The project, worth Tk 180.34 billion, is scheduled to be completed in June. Bangladesh Railway plans to go for test runs on the line in September.
Ninety kilometres of the railway line from Dohazari to Cox's Bazar have already been completed, the project director said. He expected the remaining 12 kilometres of the rail line to be constructed by the deadline.
Locals have complained that parts of the railway line which were damaged were situated in places that used to be wetlands for farming. Every year, flash floods from the hilly region hit the downstream areas of Satkania, Dohazari, and Chandanaish and flow out through the wetlands. But the new rail line does not have enough culverts for water to pass through. This caused the floods, they said.
Stagnant water was seen on both sides of the rail line on a visit to Temuhuni in Satkania on Sunday. Some flood-affected residents set up shanties on the railway line for refuge.
They say they have never experienced such heavy flooding in the past few decades. The terrible flood this year crossed all records, even those in 1997 and 2019.
Chattogram and Bandarban experienced heavy downpours at the beginning of August. According to the Met Office, the usual rainfall in the Chattogram division stands at 530 millimetres, but the rainfall in the first week of August was several times higher.
Locals say that rainwater was not able to recede and exacerbated their suffering.
The flash floods from the hill areas flow from the east region in Bandarban to the west, said Durjoy Raihan, a resident of Ward No. 5 in Keuchia Union. He said the water could not pass to the west due to the rail line. Hence, it stagnated in the east.
Project Director Mofizur brushed aside the claims that the small number of culverts caused the floods.
"People are raising different issues. We need to inspect the site. If the culverts were the cause, why did the areas on the western side of the rail line get flooded?"