Chattogram-Cox's Bazar rail line likely to open in Oct

The trial run of the train on Chattogram's Dohazari-Cox's Bazar rail line is expected to begin in September next and if everything goes normal, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the project in October this year.

Project Director (PD) of the rail line project Mohammad Mofizur Rahman expressed the hope while visiting the project site on Friday.

Though the under-construction rail line was inundated during the4 past few days' rain in greater Chattogram, there has been no major damage to the line.

The construction work of the rail line is now progressing fast.

The authorities are trying to complete the work within this month (August) with a target to conduct the test run of the train in September.

In the run up to the trial operation of the rail line, Bangladesh Railway (BR) is repairing the old Kalurghat Bridge.

The repair work of the bridge started on August 1 this year.

Md Jahangir Hossain, General Manager (GM) of BR Eastern Zone said, "It's necessary to repair the bridge for train movement on the Cox's Bazar route. BR will increase load capacity of the old bridge first."

Sources said that after repair of the Kalurghat Bridge, the train may run to Cox' Bazar either from Chattogram or Dhaka.

Without the repair work, train movement over the existing Railway Bridge at Kalurghat for the newly constructed rail line to Cox's Bazar is now risky.

Md Jahangir Hossain further said, "We want to start train operation on the train route as early as possible. We are preparing to start the test run of the train in September with the imported Korean coaches."

"We have submitted proposal to introduce more than one train on the route after inauguration. We will meet the demand of tourists and locals step by step after opening of the train route," he added.

Project director Mohammad Mofizur Rahman said, "Over 90 per cent of the construction work of the project has been completed, and the remaining work will be finished within the current month."

The implementing authorities could not complete the construction work within the previous scheduled time due to coronavirus outbreak and other reasons.

As the authorities failed to meet the deadline, they appealed to the ministry concerned to extend the timeline by two more years till July 2024 to complete the rest of the work.

The stations along this train route will have a hundred per cent computer-based interlocking signal system and fully digitalised telecommunications network.

The Prime Minister laid the foundation of the project in April 2011.

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