Kamalapur Rly Station bldg won't be demolished

The iconic Kamalapur Railway Station building will not be demolished but its view is likely to be blocked due to construction of infrastructures for setting up a multimodal transportation hub (MMTH) in the station area.
Sources said the Bangladesh Railway (BR) and PPP Authority (PPPA) in principal agreed to keep the attractive rail station building as it is after discussion with the project's Japanese private investor recently.
But they said the building will be used for other purpose than the main station building as various infrastructures would be necessary to be built surrounding it to make the multi-billion dollar PPP project viable.

"The view of the iconic building may be blocked to accommodate many ideas of the multimodal transportation hub," said an official preferring not be named but confirming that the Japanese side is now working with the idea of keeping the building in its present form.
Earlier, the railways minister at a press conference disclosed the idea of probable demolishing of the symbolic building based on different meetings with Japanese investor Kajima Corporation in 2020 which sparked sharp criticism among cross section of professional groups.
The BR has been working to develop the MMTH at Kamalapur station under the government to government PPP arrangement since the Joint Platform Meeting selected Kajima Corporation for the project.
The Japanese company later shared the conceptual design on the MMTH where it planned to develop Kamlapur Station like similar building on the southern side of the area so that other planned structure can be built with attractive design.
Sources said entire issues are still under discussion due to the necessity of accommodating the government's various transportation services including three mass rapid transit lines,
high speed train and a ramp of Dhaka Elevated Expressway. The Kajima Corporation is yet to resolve the problems of integrating ongoing various projects with the MMTH.
According to PPPA, the latest discussion with the private investor agreed to build separate station building in the eastern side. The existing station building might not be viewed due to the plan to construct various buildings surrounding it.
A plan to set up museum in the current station building was in the discussion, sources added.
Robert Boughey and Daniel Durnham of Luis Berger and Consulting Engineers Ltd built the Kamalpur Station building during 1961-86 as a symbolic gateway to the city with the dome-umbrella design.
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