The works of the Bangladesh Railway projects under the Indian Line of Credit, which had been slow since the very beginning, came to a standstill after the ouster of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5 amidst student-led uprising.
Officials concerned said that the implementation of the LoC projects had seen hardly any significant progress during the Awami League regime due to slow disbursement of the loan by India and came to a virtual halt as most of the Indian consultants, contractors and other workforces of the projects left Bangladesh.
The authorities are waiting for the response of the Indian authorities to move forward with the projects.
Transport sector experts said that the main beneficiary of these projects would be India and the Bangladesh government should consider plans for exit from these projects to avoid further delay and cost escalation.
The railway is implementing six of the 29 ongoing projects under three different Indian line of credit programmes at a cost of Tk 19,016.43 crore for the construction of 457km tracks, rehabilitation of 50km tracks and conversion 67km metre-gauge tracks into dual gauge tracks.
‘It is true that these projects have become quite slow and progress is not satisfactory,’ railways ministry secretary Abdul Baki said.
He also said, ‘Since August 5 we did not see any visible progress in finance and other components of these projects from the Indian part.’
At an inter-ministerial meeting early this month, the Indian high commissioner to Bangladesh, in the presence of the railways adviser Muhammad Fauzul Kabir Khan, said that recently many of the Indian contractors, consultants and other workforces working in the railway projects left Bangladesh temporarily for security concerns, Baki explained.
He said that Indian officials also expressed the same concerns to the Economic Relations Division under the planning ministry in Bangladesh.
‘The ERD has assured us that these projects will continue,’ said Baki.
Mentioning that the railways ministry was waiting for Indian response for some decisions on the LoC projects, he added, ‘We are hopeful to see some progress in future.’
Some of the project directors and other officials, asking anonymity, said that the LoC projects had remained slow since the very beginning because of delay in loan disbursement by India and became slower in the past one year.
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology professor Md Shamsul Hoque said that in cases of the LoC projects the main beneficiary party was India as most of these projects would serve them by converting metre-gauge tracks into dual gauge ones and by using ports to carry their heavy goods through Bangladesh.
The delayed implementation of the projects would also benefit India when the price of the components, to be brought from India, would increase while the Indian workforces in these projects would keep getting salaries for the extended period, he said.
The transport expert said, ‘If India delays these projects further citing security reasons, the project costs will increase. The Bangladesh government can consider plans for exit from these projects.’
The tenure of the conversion of 57km main line and 9.85km loop line metre-gauge line into dual gauge line from Parbatipur to Kaunia Section project is between January 2018 and December 2025 at a cost of Tk 1,683.21 crore—Tk 1,367.23 crore as project assistance through line of credit and Tk 315.97 crore from the Bangladesh government fund.
As per the progress report of the ongoing Bangladesh Railway projects till August, the Parbatipur to Kaunia Section project’s physical progress was 0.8 per cent and financial progress was merely 0.45 per cent.
Till August, the construction of 126.25km double line track between Khulna-Darsana Junction Section project’s physical progress was 4.4 per cent and financial progress was 0.42 per cent.
The Khulna-Darsana Junction Section project’s tenure is between January 2018 and December 2025 at a cost of Tk 3,506.75 crore—Tk 2,689.92 crore as project assistance through LoC and Tk 816.82 crore from the Bangladesh government fund.
The tenure of the construction of 102.81km dual gauge railway line from Bogura to Shahid M Mansur Ali Station in Sirajganj project is between July 2018 and June 2024 at a cost of Tk 5,579.7 crore—Tk 3,146.59 crore as Indian LoC project assistance and Tk 2,433.1 crore from the Bangladesh government fund.
Till August, this project’s physical progress was 16.8 per cent and financial progress was 0.47 per cent.
Till August, the physical progress of the construction of 3rd and 4th dual gauge line on Dhaka-Tongi and dual gauge double line on Dhaka-Joydevpur Section project was 36.5 per cent and financial progress was 31.09 per cent.
Under the project, a total of 138km track will be constructed.
The project tenure is between July 2012 and June 2027 at a cost of Tk 3,342.54 crore—Tk 2,821.16 crore as project assistance through Indian LoC and Tk 521.38 crore from the Bangladesh government fund.
The tenure of the rehabilitation of 51.53km Kulaura-Shahbazpur Section project is from July 2011 to December 2024 at a cost of Tk 678.5 crore—Tk 555.98 crore as Indian LoC project assistance and Tk 122.52 crore from the Bangladesh government.
Till August, Kulaura-Shahbazpur Section project’s physical progress was 45 per cent and financial progress was 33.87 per cent.
Out of the six projects, the construction of 90.72km Khulna-Mongla Port rail line project was completed this year at a cost of Tk 4,225.71 crore—LoC project assistance of Tk 2,914.34 crore and Bangladesh government’s fund of Tk 1,311.36 crore.
Till August this year, the project’s physical progress was 100 per cent while its financial progress was 95.24 per cent.
According to Bangladesh Railway Information Book 2021 and railways ministry’s Annual Report of 2022–2023, the railway has around 3,100 kilometres of tracks at the end of the year 2020–2021.
Out of these, the highest around 1,700km is metre-gauge route-kilometre followed by around 900km broad gauge route-kilometre and around 500km is dual gauge route-kilometre. Route-kilometre is a measurement unit of the railways authorities to measure the tracks.
Most countries in the world now are in the process of replacing the metre-gauge tracks with broad-gauge ones.
New Age