Railways to link 64 dists: Minister

All the districts of the country will be linked by railways within a few years. The government has taken up a plan to bring the 64 districts under railway network to ensure a comfortable and safer transportation system across the country, Railways Minister Mujibul Haque has said. The minister said works on a number of projects will start within three-and-half years to achieve the target, while works on 48 projects under the expansion plan are already underway. Bangladesh Railway (BR)’s Director General (DG) Md Amzad Hossain said on successful completion of the ongoing 48 projects, the BR will be able to carry approximately 0.3 million (3 lakh) passengers every day against the current capacity of carrying 0.18m (1.8 lakh) passengers. At least 7-8 projects will be completed with June this year, the DG informed. The 48 projects include construction of double lines on Dhaka-Chittagong rail route, two dual gauge lines on Dhaka-Tongi route, one dual gauge line on Dhaka-Narayanganj route and a dual gauge double line on Tongi-Joydebpur route. Apart from this, a study is underway to set up 164.21 kilometres (km) double line on Joydebpur-Ishawardi route with financing from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) while another project study to set up a dual gauge double line over the Jamuna River, some 300 metres off the Bangabandhu Bridge, has completed. The Railway Minister also said a total of 270 coaches – 150 financed by ADB and 120 by India – are going to be added to the BR fleet while the process of bringing 100 meter-gauge locomotives, with the financing of UDCF, South Korea and ADB, is underway. He said the new projects of setting up 571.30km rail tracks include 78.80km on Ishwardi-Pabna route which is expected to end in 2016, 5.75km on Paturia-Bhanga, 50.41km on Gopalganj-Tungipara and another track from Navaran to Satkhira-Munshiganj, which are being financed by the government. The minister also said the e-ticket system, train information digitalisation system and train information display system have been launched for providing better services to the passengers. The minister said the government undertook a 20-year long master plan in 2009 to improve the railway services. Mujibul Haque said there are now around 2,877km of railway tracks connecting 44 districts through 334 trains. He said two more railway zones – South zone and North zone – will be established alongside the existing East and West zone to expand the railway services, according to UNB.