Bangladesh Railway has completed the construction of a 172 km long new railway from Dhaka to Jessore. The Dhaka-Bhanga railway of this project called Padma Bridge Rail Link has already been inaugurated.
Meanwhile, the construction of railway from Bhanga to Narail and Jessore section is nearing completion. On Saturday (March 30), the experimental train will run on Bhanga-Narail-Jeshore section.
Bangladesh Army’s Construction Supervision Consultant (CSC) Department has issued a notification in this regard.
The concerned officials said that this railway is being constructed to bring the southern and southwestern regions of the country under the railway network through the Padma Bridge Rail Link Project. The project is being implemented by the contracting company ‘China Railway Group’ (CREC) jointly funded by Bangladesh and China.
The broad gauge railway from Bhanga to Jessore has railway junctions at Bhanga, Kashiani and Jessore’s Padmavila and Singhia. Besides, there are railway stations at Nagarkanda, Muksudpur, Maheshpur, Lohagra, Narail and Jamdia and Rupdia in Jessore.
According to the CSC notification, on March 30 and 31 (Saturday and Sunday), high-speed (120 km per hour) experimental trains will run from Bhanga railway station to Rupdia railway station. During this time public movement on the railway line is completely prohibited and a punishable offence.
At this time, to avoid any kind of accident, the public of the concerned area is specially requested to keep children, elderly and mentally challenged (if any) and domestic animals under their control.
Padma Bridge Rail Link Project Additional Chief Engineer Abu Yusuf Md. Shamim said, the construction of Banga-Narail-Jeshore section is nearing completion. As part of the work, the construction condition will be checked by running trains at different speeds for two days from Bhanga to Jessore. Trains are expected to run on this route by next June.
According to railway sources, trains are running till the break of Dhaka-Jesore railway. The last part of the project is Bhanga to Jessore. The length of this section is 87.32 kilometers. The project is due to expire in June 2024. The field work of the project started in 2019.
Incidentally, on May 3, 2016, it was approved as ‘Padma Setu Rail Link Project’.
The estimated cost of the entire project at the time of approval was Tk 34,988 crore. Currently, the cost of this project stands at 39 thousand 246 crores. The project is on the priority list (fast track) of the government.
