Goal regional

The government has decided to reopen the Kulaura-Shahbazpur rail track in Moulvibazar and upgrade it to a dual-gauge line.

The decision came at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) yesterday with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the chair.

The Ecnec approved the revised project titled “Kulaura-Shahbazpur section rehabilitation project” at a cost of Tk 678 crore.

The government will provide Tk 122 crore for the project while the remaining Tk 556 crore will come from the Indian Line of Credit (LoC), signed in 2010.

Briefing reporters after the meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said the government planned to extend the 51km rail route from Kulaura to Shahbazpur to the Indian border by setting up an additional 9km rail track and upgrade the track into a dual-gauge one to connect with the regional railway network and Trans-Asian railway network.

This will help flourish regional trade and tourism, he said.

An official of the planning ministry said there used to be rail communications between Bangladesh and India on this route, but it stopped in 1965. After that, trains ran inside Bangladesh up to Shahbazpur, but that too stopped in 2002.

Under the previous Congress government, India agreed to extend its soft loan to Bangladesh for rebuilding the rail line so that goods could be transported between the western part of the country and the Seven Sister States of northeast India.

The primary work of the project has already started and it is scheduled to be completed by June 2017, according to the planning ministry.

The Ecnec yesterday approved nine development projects worth Tk 5,868 crore.

A revised project to construct a new railway track from Khulna to Mongla Port was also approved.

The project cost was estimated to be Tk 1,721 crore when it was first approved in 2010.

But the Ecnec yesterday revised the cost to Tk 3,801 crore, 120 percent more than its first estimate.

For the project, India will provide Tk 2,371 crore in loan and the government will fund the rest Tk 1,430 crore.

Under the project, a 65-km broad gauge railway track along with 21km loop line would be set up from Khulna to Mongla Port.

Explaining the reason for the additional cost of the project, Mustafa Kamal said a 717 metre rail bridge would have to be constructed over the Rupsha river due to the change in the alignment of the rail route.

He said the change in the alignment increased the length of the rail route by 12km.

All these would cost around Tk 2,200 crore.

Besides, Tk 1,000 crore would be required for acquiring 678 acres of land, he said.

The project will complete in June 2018.

A planning ministry official said the government had been considering allowing transport of goods to India, Nepal and Bhutan through Mongla Port. For this reason, the rail track would be converted to dual-gauge so that the trains could directly enter India.