Time to build a new Dhaka-CTG rail route

Though some 170 years have elapsed since the introduction of railway communication in undivided India, the rail service network all over Bangladesh including its Dhaka-Chattogram section still clings to the century-old alignment set by the British. This was due to bureaucratic lethargy and lack of innovative ideas of the railway authorities on the one hand and failure to understand the need for faster movement of man and materials called for by economic vibrancy of the country on the other. While motion is conducive to faster growth, vested quarter find its interest best served by stagnancy. Despite the fact, seemingly marking a break from the lethargic way of action, the Bangladesh Railway (BR) has started to think outside the box and act accordingly. The new Dhaka-Chittagong rail route through Narayanganj proposed by Bangladesh Railway will hopefully make movement between these two major economic hubs faster and thus accelerate the country's export-import business. 

According to an FE report, the BR has decided in principle to construct a new route from Dhaka to Chattogram via Narayanganj and Cumilla with the obvious object of creating a shortcut to the country's business capital and thus reducing time and travel distance between the two cities by two hours and 80 kilometres respectively. The trains between the two cities now travel along the 321 km long Tongi-Gazipur single metre-gauge line built at the end of the 19th century. Encouragingly, all formalities for the proposed project including approval from the Planning Commission have been completed. Its finalisation now awaits nod from the Railway Adviser. Once the proposed rail route project is implemented and opened for rolling stocks to move, it will have significant positive impacts on the national economy as a whole and export-import business in particular and therefore will open a new chapter in the history of the country's railway service. It will, hopefully, help Bangladesh Railway come out of the vicious cycle of huge loss it incurs regularly. As has already been mentioned, the new route will bring down time distance between the two cities and thus make travelling cheaper. But that is not all about its benefits; it will also cut the cost of transportation of goods to and from the port city. It will not only make export-import business cost effective but will also ensure timely shipment of export items, especially readymade garments. 

Such innovative projects were long overdue for the modernisation of the railway service. While countries like China and Japan are introducing superfast magnetic trains to cope with the meteoric rise of their economies, railway service in Bangladesh is still limping with century-old technology. However, though initiatives for the expansion and improvement of railway network were taken several times since 2007, those were shelved on grounds like political interests of the immediate past regime. As is evident from increasing number of facts revealed every day, the immediate past government did nothing without first realising its narrow political and group interests. It wasted billions of public money in the name of improving railway service but nothing was done in line with it. Now, as the corrupt regime has been dethroned, Bangladesh Railway can go for fresh initiatives to expand its network and modernise services.

The changed situation following the ouster of the despotic regime has created scope for implementing whatever projects including the proposed Dhaka-Chattogram line are taken in hand in an efficient and transparent manner and completed within the fixed timeframe. No personal or coterie interests should be allowed to stand in the way of timely project implementation. Efforts must continue to maximise the benefits of the proposed Dhaka-CTG corridor.