Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the double line railway from Kasba to Mandbagh in Brahmanbaria and Shasidal to Rajapur in Cumilla on February 9 (Thursday).
The 31 km long double line railway will open for commercial use after 9 years of waiting, according to Railways Ministry sources.
They said this has been taken under the project of construction of dual gauge double railway line from Akhaura to Laksam and conversion of existing railway line to dual gauge.
The project started in 2014. The duration of the project has been extended due to various reasons.
Director of the project Shahidul Islam said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the 31km railway on February 9.
“After that, commercial rail traffic will start. But it will take time till June to complete the rest of the work. At present there is no problem in the implementation of the project, the progress is 90 percent,” he mentioned.
According to Bangladesh Railway, the route of Akhaura-Laksam Dual Gauge Double Line is 72 km and its track is 144 km.
Besides, a total of 184.60 km will be constructed including yards and loop lines. Construction of a dual gauge railway line from Laksam to Akhaura is in progress.
As a result, trains are now running on a single line. The normal speed of the train on this line was 80 km.
But now the train has to run at a maximum speed of 30 to 60 kmph. As a result, the train is delayed from 20 minutes to an hour in reaching the destination.
118 km of the 321 km Dhaka-Chattogram railway line was already double line. After 2008, 131 km of railway has been double lined through two projects.
The project is being implemented by upgrading the remaining 72 km as a dual gauge double line.
The project, worth around Tk 6,500 crore, was supposed to start in November 2014 and be completed by June 2020. Due to covid-19, the government automatically extended the project period by one year. Later, when the project director applied for an extension of the period again, the period was extended by one year. However, the project now extends to June 2023.
