Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate rail traffic through Padma Bridge today.
The railway is going to be opened on the southern route of the country through the Padma Bridge. The new railway runs from Dhaka’s Gendaria, Keraniganj, and Munshiganj via Padma Bridge to Madaripur-Faridpur. The government aims to start the rest of the railway from Banga to Jessore next year.
According to railway information, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the new railway from Mawa railway station at 11 a.m. today on Tuesday. After the inauguration, the Prime Minister will take a special train from Mawa station to Banga station in Faridpur. Cabinet members and dignitaries including Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina are expected to be passengers. The train for the Chief Minister has been prepared with 14 coaches imported from China.
Dr Bhangar at two o’clock. The Prime Minister will participate in the public meeting organized by the Faridpur District Awami League at Kazi Abu Yusuf Stadium.
Padma Bridge was inaugurated on June 25, 2022. Vehicles are moving over this two-story bridge. There is a train track inside the bridge. A separate project, known as the Padma Setu Rail Link Project, was taken up to establish connectivity between the two banks of the Padma.
Project Director Afzal Hossain told Prothom Alo last night that trains will run on this route soon after the inauguration. But the date has not been fixed yet.
At present, out of 64 districts of the country, 43 districts have railways. It will be connected with Munshiganj and Madaripur railway through the Dhaka-Bhanga railway. Keraniganj, the southern upazila of Dhaka, had no rail connection for so long. Narail will be newly connected when the railway is opened up to Jessore. Railways have plans to extend the railway line from Bhanga to Barisal to Patuakhali in future. At present there is no railway in the Barisal division.
By 2030, 13 pairs of trains will run daily on the Dhaka-Banga section of the railway. Similarly, seven pairs of trains will run daily on the Bhanga-Kashiani section and five pairs on the Kashiani-Jesho section.
Officials of the operations branch of the railways said that the Sundarban Express on the Dhaka-Khulna route and the Benapole Express on the Dhaka-Jesore route are planned to run through Padma Bridge. Two trains are currently plying from Dhaka via Tongi-Joidebpur-Bangabandhu Setu-Ishwardi, Hardinge Bridge. Similarly, a plan is to run the Madhumati Express train from Rajshahi to Bhanga to Dhaka via Padma Bridge. Apart from this, the running of commuter trains is also under consideration.
Bangladesh Railway is implementing the Padma Bridge Rail Link project into three parts. The length of the first part Dhaka-Mawa is about 38 km. A new station is being built at Keraniganj in this part. The length of the Mawa-Bhanga section is about 33 km. There are five new station buildings in this section. These two parts are being inaugurated today.
The last part of the project is Bhanga to Jessore. The length of this section is about 83 km. The number of stations is 14. According to the project duration, Bangladesh Railways has set a target of commissioning the entire railway line from Dhaka to Jessore by June 2024. The field work of the project started in 2019.
According to railway sources, the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project was approved on May 3, 2016. The estimated cost at the time of approval is Tk 34 thousand 988 crore. Currently, the cost of this project has increased to 39 thousand 246 crores. The project is on the priority list (fast track) of the government. The construction of the railway is being done by the contractor company of that country funded by China.
The China Railway Group (CREC) contractor has already prepared an analysis of the amount of passenger and freight traffic that the under-construction Padma Bridge link can handle. A short-term analysis says that by 2030, 13 pairs of trains will run daily on the Dhaka-Banga section of the railway. Similarly, seven pairs of trains will run daily on the Bhanga-Kashiani section and five pairs on the Kashiani-Jesho section. During this period, the Dhaka-Bhanga section will transport 4 million passengers per year, the Bhanga-Kashiani section 1.7 million passengers and the Kashiani-Jesho section 1.5 million passengers per year. CREC has made this estimate based on the ‘one-direction’ movement.
