Badly burnt locomotive returns to track after 7 years
A locomotive of Bangladesh Railway (BR), which was badly damaged in a fire after a derailment in 2013, has been finally made functional by the experts of Central Locomotive Workshop in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur.
After a successful trial run, the engine was officially handed over to BR authorities yesterday.
"The repair work here took eight months and cost Tk 3 crore," said Mohammad Kudrat-e-Khuda, chief executive of the workshop.
According to the BR officials in Parbatipur, the locomotive (engine No 2933) of Parabat Express plying Dhaka-Sylhet route got badly damaged as it caught fire due to burst of its fuel tank after derailment near Noapara station in Habiganj district on October 7 in 2013.
After its salvage, the engine was taken to a workshop of BR in Pahartoli of Chattogram for repair but the experts there failed in the task as the damage was too extensive.
The BR authorities, however, decided to make further attempt to repair it locally and the engine was brought to Central Locomotive Workshop in Parbatipur on May 15 last year.
"Considering the nature and extent of the damage, it was a challenging task for us to repair the engine. Experts of the workshop disassembled the entire engine to identify the damaged spares, which took a lot of time and efforts," said Kudrat-e-Khuda.
"Experts at the factory made the required spares and reassembled it. Besides the engineering part, the repair work involved electrical and electronic sections of the locomotive, which was burnt badly due to the fire incident," said the chief executive of the workshop.
According to the BR officials in Parbatipur, Tk 33 crore would be needed to import such an engine.
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