RAJSHAHI, Oct 9 (BSS): The West Zone of Bangladesh Railway will be given 40 new locomotive engines aimed at improving the standard of passenger services through infusing dynamism into railway services.
Chief Mechanical Engineer of the zone Kudrat-E-Khuda said the engines would be procured from the United States of America (USA). Eight of those have already reached the country and the remaining 32 will be brought in four phases.
Only the broad gauge (BG) locomotives are operated in the zone and there are 92 engines in the zone with a 20-year life span. Of those, 43 have become date-expired.
Engineer Khuda said operation cost of the date-expired engines was higher than the good ones. Besides, spare parts of the old engines are not available in the local markets.
To remove the existing problems, the new engines are being purchased at a total cost of Taka 11.23 billion (1,123 crore) under the Bangladesh Railway's Rolling Stock Operation Project.
Taking the overall situation into special consideration, the railway authorities had signed an agreement with the USA-based 'Progress Rail Locomotive Incorporation' on purchasing 40 new BG engines in January, 2019.
The engines are being purchased with joint financial collaboration of Asian Development Bank and Bangladesh Government. Each of the engines cost Taka 283.9 million (28.39 crore).
Each of the diesel electric engines contains 3,250 BHP along with 18.8 tonnes of excel load and they are capable of commercial running speed at 130 kilometres per hour. He said they were very hopeful of adding all the 32 engines to the WZ railway by June, 2022.
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