The opening of the Jamuna Railway Bridge over the River Jamuna added more relief to the mostly hassle-free journey during the just ended Eid-ul-Fitr holiday, said Bangladesh Railway officials.
The 4.8-kilometre dual-gauge and double-track bridge reduced around 40 minutes journey time in total for each train.
Eid-ul-Fitr was celebrated in the country on March 31 with a total eight-day off from work that included Eid holiday, a general holiday and weekend.
During the Eid-time journey the trains ran mostly on schedule with no incident of derailment or engine failure was reported. Passengers in general also expressed their satisfaction over the rail services.
Bangladesh Railway director general Md Afzal Hossain said that earlier it took 30鈥�35 minutes for a train to cross the Jamuna Bridge in which it ran at 20km per hour speed.
With the new rail bridge opened, now a train runs at 100km per hour speed to cross it in 7鈥�8 minutes, he said.
The rail bridge was inaugurated on March 18 this year, opening a new window for the northern region people, enjoying a speeder journey.聽
Afzal Hossain said that the double line on the new rail bridge now lets the trains heading towards opposite direction run simultaneously which was not possible earlier as the bridge had only a single line.聽
The Jamuna Railway Bridge has been built separately near the Jamuna Bridge that contains both road and rail links. After opening of the new rail bridge, the old rail bridge is not used at the moment for running trains.聽
The director general also said that this year fewer incidents of locomotive failure and no incident of derailment occurred.
鈥極ur monitoring鈥攂oth by the railway and the railways ministry鈥攚as very strong during the Eid,鈥� he said and added that due to extended holiday the passengers left Dhaka on different days.
Under the railway bridge project, a total of 30.73-kilometre new rail line, the bridge, 0.05-kilometre viaduct on both sides and a 7.667-kilometre railway approach embankment were constructed in parallel with the existing Jamuna Bridge.
The project was approved in December 2016.
The original project cost was Tk 9,734.07 crore to increase to Tk 16,780.96 crore after the first revision in 2020 including the loan of Tk 12,149.2 crore from Japan International Cooperation Agency.
Instead of the original deadline of December 2023 the project deadline is now December 2025 with one year鈥檚 Defect Liability period.
