Trains to ply Dhaka-Bhanga route from September: Minister

Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan has said trains will be operating commercially on Dhaka-Bhanga route via the Padma Bridge by this September after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurates the service at a convenient date.

The minister said the construction work of the rail line from Dhaka to Jashore by Padma Bridge will be completed by June next year.

He was speaking at a press briefing after getting off a train that took a trial run on the route on Tuesday.

On the first test run, the train crossed the Padma Bridge, nine months after the road section of the bridge was officially opened for traffic.

The seven-coach train started its journey from Faridpur's Bhanga station, crossed the Padma Bridge and stopped at Mawa railway station.

Before the journey, the railway minister inaugurated the trial run by cutting a ribbon in a brief ceremony at Bhanga station. 

At an average speed of 20km per hour, the rain reached Mawa station at 3:19pm after a journey of one hour and 58 minutes. The train reached the Padma Bridge connecting track at 2:35pm. The train will be able to run as fast as 100km per hour in full operation.

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan, Chief Whip Noor-e Alam Chowdhury Liton, Deputy Minister for Water Resources Enamul Haque Shameem, local MPs including Nixon Chowdhury, Abdus Sobhan Golap and Iqbal Hossain Apu, secretary and senior officials of the ministry and project director of the Padma Rail, and a good number of journalists and local people travelled by the train.

Expressing excitement at the press briefing after the journey, the railway minister said that the bridge attained "completeness" with the train running on it.

In 2016, with the aim of constructing a 172-km railway line, the Padma Rail Link was planned to be completed by 2022 with the assistance of China at a cost of Tk34,989 crore. However, the deadline was later extended by 2 years to June 2024.

With the extension, the expenditure jumped by more than Tk4,000 crore to Tk39,246 crore. Exim Bank of China provided a loan of Tk21,037 crore. 

Once the line is fully operational, some districts will come under the new railway and communication of the south-western region of the country will be developed through Munshiganj, Shariatpur, Madaripur and Narail districts, project documents say.

Moreover, Bangladesh will become another sub-route of the Trans-Asian Railway Network and the project will play a role in bringing Barishal and Payra Deep Sea Port under the rail line in future, railway authorities said.

At Bhanga station, locals waved to the first passengers of the train while the entire journey witnessed the presence of a large number of enthusiastic crowds on both sides of the railway line.

The passenger on the train, Abdul Karim Matubbur, a freedom fighter, told The Business Standard that he never dreamt of going to Dhaka by train from Bhanga. 

On 25 June last year, the road section of Padma Bridge was opened for vehicle movement. The bridge was handed over to the railways ministry on 17 July for laying the railway lines. Work on laying rail tracks started on 23 November.