The Bangladesh Railway has resumed an old initiative anew to build a rail link along the shortest distance between Dhaka and Chattogram that will significantly reduce the travel time between the capital and the port city.
Railway officials said that the new rail link along the chord line, which in railway parlance is the shortest distance between two given railway stations, once built, would reduce journey duration to less than three hours. Currently, uninterrupted trains like Sonar Bangla Express and Subarno Express take about five hours for the journey.
The present 321-kilometre Dhaka-Chattogram route follows a long and winding course, touching Tongi and Bhairab before going past Cumilla to reach the port city.
The new line that will run via Cumilla and Narayanagnj would be 231鈥�236km long, 85鈥�90km less than the current distance.
Railway officials said that establishing rail communication along the chord line became urgent for building a shorter and faster rail link between the capital and the port city.
The first initiative was taken on this in 2006 was later abandoned. Then another initiative in 2020 was postponed, to be revived again in October this year.
Under the project, the railway has begun a feasibility study and now is waiting for approval from the interim government鈥檚 adviser for the railways ministry Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan to carry on with the proposed project, said Bangladesh Railway officials.聽聽
The authorities are looking into several options for the new rail link. The route of the first two options is same, Shyampur-Narayanganj-Bandar-Sonargaon-Meghna-Titas-Muradnagar-Debidwar-Burichang-Cumilla Adarsha Sadar, while the length of the option one is 80.6km and the option two is 80.05km.
The route of the 82.5km-long third option is Shyampur-Narayanganj-Bandar-Sonargaon-Meghna-Titas-Daudkandi-Muradnagar-Chandina-Barua-Cumilla-Adarsha Sadar-Cumilla Sadar Dakkhin.
The route of the 89km-long fourth option is Shyampur-Narayanganj-Bandar-Sonargaon-Meghna-Titas-Daudkandi-Muradnagar-Chandina-Barua-Laksam-Cumilla Sadar Dakkhin.
On November 25, at a meeting held on the proposed 鈥楥onstruction of a chord line from Narayanganj to Laksam/Cumilla鈥� project at the Rail Bhaban, the officials agreed on principle on the option one based on the issues related to land acquisition, economic benefit and length.
The rationale and justification of the feasibility study and detailed design for the proposed project estimates the preliminary estimated cost for the chord line at approximately Tk40,000 crore.
This high cost reflects factors, including higher land prices around Dhaka and Narayanganj and the need for substantial viaduct structures, including bridges and culverts, it added.
The document also said that the rail link was established during the 19th century British colonial period as a meter-gauge single line section to maximise coverage across the region.
At present the rail link still operates primarily with meter-gauge tracks as a double line, with the upgraded dual-gauge double lines on the 72km long Akhaura-Laksam and 21km long Dhaka-Tongi sections.
After the 2006 feasibility study, a public-private partnership proposal was sent to the railways ministry in 2012 titled 鈥楥onstruction of chord line from Dhaka to Cumilla鈥� when the estimated cost of the construction had been fixed at about Tk 11,622 crore at that time.
In August 2014, the railway signed a memorandum of understanding with China Railway Eryuan Engineering Group Co Ltd for the project but the railway dropped the project as the government gave focus on high-speed rail connection on the section which was also ditched.
In 2020, another move was taken to conduct another feasibility study on the plan but in March this year then prime minister Sheikh Hasina directed to postpone the study citing financial crisis, according to the railway officials.
After the fall of Sheikh Hasina on August 5 the railway resumed the feasibility study and detailed design for the proposed project in October after getting a nod from the new government, said officials.
鈥楥urrently we are conducting the feasibility study and preparing the detailed design,鈥� said project director Md Abedur Rahman on Sunday.
He also said that they were yet to fix the option and before the detailed design it was difficult to properly estimate the cost of the project.
鈥楾he adviser will give a decision on the proposed project at first as it is a large one,鈥� he said, adding, 鈥榯hen the proposed project will be sent to the Planning Commission for approval.聽聽
Railway officials said that discussions on building a chord line between Dhaka city and the port city had been going on since the 1970s.