Railway to bring 10 locomotives from India by this month
Bangladesh Railway (BR) is going to bring 10 locomotives from India by this month, to overcome its locomotive crisis.
"Ten broad gauge locomotives will arrive in Bangladesh from India at the end of this month," BR's Director General Md Shamsuzzaman told The Daily Star yesterday.
India would give the locomotive as a gesture of friendship, railway sources said.
With 72 percent locomotives of BR already crossing their economic life, the government last year took initiatives to hire locomotives from India for the first time to help the railway overcome the crisis.
In April last year, BR sent a proposal to the railways ministry to "hire" or "get as courtesy" 20 railway engines (10 broad gauge and 10 meter gauge) from India until the first batch of 70 locomotives that Bangladesh bought from the US and South Korea starts arriving mid-next year.
"Until then, the 10 locomotives would be very helpful for them," he said. However, BR will not bring meter gauge (MG) locomotives from India. They did not get suitable MG locomotives as India phased out such engines long ago, Md Shamsuzzaman added.
According to BR documents of May last year, it had 178 MG locomotives, of which 139 have crossed their 20-year economic life. Of its 90 BG locomotives, 55 have completed their economic life.
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