Bangladesh Railway (BR) yesterday signed a contract with an Indian company to procure 420 Broad Gauge (BR) wagons, aiming to increase its capacity to operate more freight trains.

As per the contract, Hindustan Engineering and Industries Ltd will provide the wagons within two and half years from the date the contract will be effective, at the cost of Tk 231.19 crore.

Project Director Mizanur Rahman and Pradip Guha, vice president (marketing) of the Kolkata-based company, signed the contract on behalf of the organisation at Rail Bhaban, in presence of Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan.

The agreement was signed only five months before the expiry of the revised deadline of the project, meaning another lengthy extension is most definitely in the offing.

Talking to The Daily Star in December last year, Mizanur Rahman said another three years after the expiry of the revised deadline of June 2022 is needed.

In June 2018, BR took up the Tk 3,602 crore project, with loans from Asian Development Bank, that would substantively enhance its operational capacity in three years.

But come June 2021, let alone complete the project — which entails procuring 40 locomotives, 125 luggage vans and 1,000 wagons — BR has failed to complete even the signing of agreements with all vendors, in a development that has become characteristic of BR.

Of the 37 projects it is implementing, 26 — including this one — has been extended at least once.

The project is procuring all these locomotives, luggage vans and wagons under five packages while contract for a fourth package was signed in December last year. The fifth and last one was signed yesterday.

The project authorities blamed cancelation of tender process, delay to get concurrence from ADB and the pandemic for the delay in the project’s implementation.

Talking at yesterday’s contract signing ceremony, Sujan said it is not possible to develop Bangladesh without the development of railway.