BR will introduce commuter trains

Bangladesh Railway will introduce commuter trains on different routes within the next 15 months to facilitate short-distance passengers.

Communications minister Syed Abul Hossain made the announcement on Thursday after signing a deal with China's Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company to procure commuter trains.
News Source: bdnews24.com

Construction of 1210km rail line planned in Bangladesh

The government is eying to construct 1210.42 km new rail line or reopen closed rail lines under the Sixth Five Year Plan (SFYP) by FY 15 as its vision to expand and improve the railway system to provide safer, better, environment friendly and less expensive transport facilities. The National Economic Council (NEC) on June 22 approved the country's Sixth Five-Year Plan (2011-15) with an outlay of Tk 13.47 trillion giving priority to education, employment generation and industrialization and projecting 8 percent GDP growth by the terminal year of 2015. According to the Plan, there will be double tracking of 506.20 km line and construction of 6 new important bridges along with all necessary infrastructure, rehabilitation/upgrading of 1535.73 km existing rail line along with all necessary infrastructures, remodeling/construction of 7 stations in existing section, improvement of 831 level crossing gates, construction of one ICD at Dhirasram and improvement of other infrastructures to increase carrying capacity. Talking to UNB, a Planning Commission official said that within the next five years, Bangladesh Railway (BR) has planned to undertake about 149 projects including 46 on-going and 103 new. "It is very essential to get the required allocation in time to implement the projects efficiently as lack of adequate fund will result in time over-run as well as cost over-run," he added. Under the Plan, BR will undertake procurement of 234 DE locomotives, 50 DEMU/DHMU, 771 passenger coaches and 1430 wagons to introduce new trains and improve the service quality and passenger amenities and increase carrying capacities of containers, fuel oil, aviation fuel, bulk freight and parcels. Besides, rehabilitation of 143 DE locomotives, 560 passenger coaches and 337 wagons will also be undertaken to enhance availability and performance of rolling stocks and to ensure reliability and punctuality of running trains. Signaling system of 113 stations will be modernized to ensure safety apart from undertaking various PPP projects to create other business opportunity. BR has also taken initiative to construct railway bridges through Bahadurabad-Phulchari ghat over river Jamuna, 2nd Karnaphuli rail-cum-road bridge, 2nd Bhairab and 2nd Titas railway bridge and dedicated railway bridge over river Jamuna parallel to existing Bangabandhu Bridge. BR has also planned to undertake projects to re-orient the railway network towards the capital, connecting the capital with Cox's Bazar, Mongla Port, Tungipara, Barisal, Chittagong Hill Tracts, and other areas, where rail network does not exist. Roads and Railways Division officials said that due to inadequate investment, the railway track is in poor condition in a number of areas, including the vital Dhaka-Chittagong corridors which need immediate rehabilitation and upgrading. Almost 78 percent of locomotives and 28 percent of passenger coaches are beyond their economic life and need immediate replacement. About 70 percent of the signaling system has become old aged and needs modernization. It is mentionable that with emergence of road transport, railway started losing its market share as it came down to 4 percent in 2005 from 30 percent in 1975. The strategy for SFYP also includes development of new inland container depots (ICD) and increasing the carrying capacity as commodities carried by rail are mostly sea port and land port based. Bangladesh Railway has also great potential in the regional traffic market, which depends on the expansion of railway network and the revival of historical railway links. Most of these are part of Trans Asian Railway network and Bangladesh has already signed the intergovernmental agreement.
Source

http://www.thenewnationbd.com/newsdetails.aspx?newsid=11347

Railway to propose faster services with new locomotives

Bangladesh Railway (BR) will soon add few more locomotives in its fleet to cater to the increasing demand for efficient, faster and time-bound services. Officials at the state-run organisation told BSS that they had planned making railway more attractive and reliable mode of transport for carrying both passengers and goods.

They said the 142-year-old organisation has long been suffering from resource constraint, barring it from offering proper services to satisfy customers. Among the major problems were shortages of locomotives and passengers' carriers. The officials, however, said the present government had initiated some projects to improve the railway services so it can offer desire service to the people.

Under the projects, the train services will be strengthened with new locomotives and passengers' carrier and container's wagons, and introducing commuter trains on Dhaka-bound routes from some surrounding townships. BR director general Abu Taher said nine new locomotives would be on track this year when the process of procuring 11 more rail-engines would be finalized. Among the new engines, four will arrive in Dhaka in July and the rest will be here by September, much ahead of the stipulated time of January next year.



The Railway authority on January last year signed an agreement with a South Korean company to procure the locomotives when the firm was given two years time for supplying the engines.

An official said the nine locomotives would cost Taka 284.23 crore, of which South Korean government would provide a soft loan amounting to US $28 million (Taka 199.7 crore) in their currency when the government would source Taka 85.16 crore. BR additional director general Khalilur Rahman said after trial all the nine locomotives would be in services this year in the eastern zone, easing the shortage of locomotives.

He said the services would be way better with the new locomotives because the new engines would help maintain schedule and would eventually faster services. With nine more engines, the total number of locomotives would be 295. At present, BR has a fleet of 286 locomotives engines. Of them, 208 engines are operating in the eastern zone on meter gauge and the rest 78 are serving the western zone on broad gauge tracks.

BR joint director general Shamsuzzaman said they are now finalizing a process for procuring 11 more locomotives under financial assistance by JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency).

Another Railway official said the 22 kilometers of new railways were constructed when 139 kilometers of tracks were rehabilitated last year to improve railway connectivity. Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith in his budget speech also said that a separate Railway Division was set up under the Ministry of Communication as part of reforming the railway sector.

He said the next step would complete the transformation of BR into a corporate organisation and finalise the 20-year Master Plan for railway very soon. BR, a principle transportation agency of the country, covers a length of 2,855 route kilometers employing a total of 34,168 regular employees. -BSS