Upgrading freight, passenger train traffic tops agenda

Dhaka and Delhi meet in the city tomorrow (Monday) to make way for upgrading freight services, particularly stone-carrying capacity, of Bangladesh Railway to meet a growing demand for the gigantic Padma Bridge project.
Smoothing and expanding the cross-border passenger train service, including easing the hassles of midway customs formalities, is also learnt to be on top of the list of topics of talks at the Dhaka meet.             
Official sources said the inter-government railway meeting (IGRM) of Bangladesh and India will discuss the possibility of increasing freight-train movement to cater private sector's demand for stones from India.
They said at present the BR could manage two rakes having 42 wagons each through Rohonpur and Darshana daily. Each of the goods trains has the capacity of 3,000 metric tonnes.
The IGRM, which convenes once a year with the representatives of Bangladesh and Indian Railways, customs, immigration and external affairs of both the countries, search for ways to increase the number of freights as BR could hardly do so on its own.
"We get demand from India to provide at least three rakes (train) to carry stones. But it was never possible to increase the number more than two," said a BR official.
He said for a lack of engine, manpower, infrastructures, etc, freight-train movement couldn't be increased.
The officials said with the existing infrastructure, stones are unloaded at Bangabandhu bridge point and in Faridpur every day. But it is not possible to load and unload stones from starting and ending points. However, the three-day IGRM will also discuss regular issue of improving passenger-train movement, including increasing trips of Maitree Express.
The cross-border train, which runs three days a week between Dhaka and Kolkata, is expected to operate six days a week.
Sources said the friendship train has now got 90 to 95 per cent occupancy due to increase in popularity among the two peoples.
They said the longstanding demand of passengers of the two countries for completing customs clearance end to end will also be in for discussion.
Completing customs formalities on both sides of the frontier during two long halts takes a lot of beating and the morning journey ultimately ends at night, travellers said.           
The last IGRM was held on April 25-28 in New Delhi, agreeing to increase frequency of train movements. The meeting also agreed to pursue the initiative to shift Customs and Immigration checks to Kolkata and Dhaka.
The BR and IR expressed their readiness to convert Maitree Express to a fully air-conditioned rail service as passengers on the long-haul journey summer much in summer.
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