Rail bogged down by six projects

Cox's Bazar has to make do with just two daily trains against the huge demand, while travel time for people heading to the north by rail is longer than it should be because the Bangladesh Railway failed to get key projects going.

As many as six major projects of the BR have been on halt for years or have seen very little progress lately. The fate of two of the projects is now uncertain due to complexities over financing.

One of the projects was taken in April 2019 to convert 225 kilometres of metre-gauge (MG) railway line from Akhaura to the Sylhet section into 239km of dual gauge.

The Tk 16,104-crore project aimed at boosting connectivity between the capital and the Sylhet region was supposed to be completed by June 2025.

China was supposed to provide 66.16 percent of the total project cost under a government-to-government arrangement, and almost all necessary procedures, including the selection of contractors, were done.

However, a committee formed by the Prime Minister's Office to review the negotiated contract prices of the two projects including this one asked the BR in November 2020 to bring down the project cost by Tk 3,354.31 crore (20.8 percent).

However, the Chinese contractor disagreed over the revised costs, halting the project's implementation.

The project saw no progress in the last three years even though the rail ministry had formed a committee to re-negotiate the price with the contractor, according to officials informed with the proceedings.

"The project is uncertain now. Actually, the BR is not interested in continuing the project," said a top BR official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly on the issue.

Md. Quamrul Ahsan, the director general of BR, however, said the negotiation committee is working to revive the project.

The other project with funding uncertainty is the one taken up in October 2016 to procure 200 rail carriages with money arranged by a Chinese contractor.

In August 2022, the railway authorities decided to cancel the contract with the Chinese company following a government committee's objection to the hard terms of the loan.

New financing is yet to be arranged and the authorities fear the project could be cancelled.

BR is unable to launch new trains or enhance the capacity of existing trains in its east zone due to the carriage shortage.

Citing an example an official said Cox's Bazar should be served with five express trains but it has only two as there are no carriages.   

The Tk 14,250.61-crore project to turn the 174-km Joydebpur-Ishwardi section into a dual-gauge double line has been delayed after China in early 2021 decided to pull out from funding due to "lack of in-depth preliminary work and insufficient feasibility study".

The move came months after the same PMO committee asked the BR to slash Tk 1,495.52 crore (12.91 percent) from the project's contract price of Tk 11,586.68 crore.

The project was taken in November 2018 with the view to improving the line capacity that connects the capital with the north-western destinations.

Against the backdrop, the BR turned to Japan to implement the project and Japan agreed.

Currently, the BR has started the tendering process for hiring consultants for detailed design, Ahsan said.

The project, which was scheduled to be completed by December 2024, may not completed by 2028, according to BR officials. Train to and from the north have to wait at stations to give way to other trains as line between Joydebpur and Ishwardi is single track.  

In January 2015, the BR took a project to build a second line on the Dhaka-Narayanganj route to increase the existing capacity of 16 pairs of trains daily. The project's original deadline was June 2017.

When the project was 82 percent complete, the contractor laying the rail line, the Power Construction Corporation of China, on March 15 last year cancelled the contract alleging that it was not getting payments and the project site was not handed on time.

In the meantime, the project cost soared 73.9 percent to Tk 658.34 crore and the deadline was extended to June 2026.

The project saw no physical progress last year, while the BR has also changed the scope of the works eight years after it was initiated.

Currently, the BR is evaluating the bid proposals for completing the rest of the work, according to Ahsan.

In May 2018, the BR took a project for constructing a rail line from Faridpur's Madhukhali to Magura without conducting a feasibility study.

The Tk 1,202.49-crore project was supposed to wrap up by April 2022, but it saw 45.63 percent progress until December last year. In the last year, the progress was just 5.86 percent.

Now, the project authority is seeking Tk 290 crore more and until June 2026 to complete it, according to BR officials.

The project got delayed due to the lengthy process of land acquisition and the contractor's claim to increase the contract price and change the specification for some materials, according to Ahsan.

"The land-related problems are almost solved and we are working to resolve the other issues," he said.

Another project was taken up in July 2011 for Tk 117.68 crore to rehabilitate the Kulaura-Shahbazpur section of the railway with the view to establishing connectivity between India and Bangladesh.

The project, which was supposed to be complete by December 2012, saw only 27.50 percent progress in the last twelve-and-a-half years, while its cost rose more than five times to Tk 678.50 crore.

There were some problems on the side of the Indian contractor but they have resumed the works, Ahsan said.

"Like many other sectors, the BR lacks good governance and accountability and thus none is held responsible for project delays, which further encourage the malpractices," said Md. Shamsul Hoque, a professor at Buet's Department of Civil Engineering.

While the BR has a master plan, its projects are not taken up in accordance due to failure to get funding as per the plan.

"But the BR does not have the capability or even the interest to update the plan in a pragmatic way," Hoque added.

The BR, however, blames the uncertainty over foreign funding, complexities in land acquisition and lack of necessary manpower for the delays.

"We are working to resolve the problems tirelessly and move forward with the projects," Ahsan said.