The duration of the railway project has been extended.
The cost and time of the two railway lines are changing. However, these two projects were inaugurated in 2023. This time the duration of the project is being extended until June 2025. In some cases, the cost is also changing. The amount of cost is also decreasing. The Prime Ministers of the two countries inaugurated the Akhaura-Agartala railway line; but no train has been started. Now the loan of the donor agency is also changing.
It is known that the Akhaura-Laksam railway line was inaugurated on July 20, 2023. The Akhaura-Agartala railway line was inaugurated on November 1 of that year. This time the Development Project Proposal (DPP) of the two projects will have to be revised. A meeting was held in the Planning Commission on this issue yesterday morning. Senior officials of the Ministry of Railways and Bangladesh Railways were present there. In that meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee, it was decided that the cost will be reduced in various sub-sectors. And the duration of the projects will be extended until June this year.
In this regard, Bangladesh Railway Director General Afzal Hossain said that the DPP of the two projects will be revised. The amendment was raised in the PEC meeting for various reasons.
It is learnt that the project was taken up with Indian funding to connect India’s Agartala railway line with Akhaura in Brahmanbaria district of Bangladesh. The project was taken up with a plan to operate freight trains from Gangasagar station in Akhaura to Nishchintapur station in Agartala, India. The project was inaugurated on November 1, 2023, by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the then Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. But to this day, no train has run on this route. The project was valid from July 2016 to June 2020. After that, the period was extended five times in phases. This time, the new deadline has been set until June 2025. The project cost of 477 crore 81 lakh 18 thousand taka has now been estimated at 318 crore 52 lakh 51 thousand taka. As a result, the cost of 159 crore 28 lakh 67 thousand taka is being reduced.
The proposal for the project came during the visit of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in 2010. Currently, it is necessary to travel 1,645 kilometers to reach Kolkata port from India via Agartala via ‘Chicken Neck’. With the construction of the Akhaura-Agartala railway line, it is possible to travel only 400 kilometers to reach Kolkata. The main reason for taking up this project is the problem that the railway line from Dhaka to Akhaura is meter gauge. Therefore, it is not possible to operate passenger trains with India through the Agartala railway line. Due to lack of adequate preparation, freight trains have not started. No one can say exactly when trains will run on this railway line.
Meanwhile, the amount of donor loan for the Akhaura-Laksam railway project to be inaugurated in 2023 is changing. The ADB loan waiver period has expired. Therefore, it has been decided to take a loan from the EIB. The cost of this project was estimated at Tk 6,504 crore in the original DPP. Then, the cost was estimated at Tk 5,504 crore. In the first amendment, it was Tk 13 lakh. This time, the cost has been estimated at Tk 4,986 crore. This is saving Tk 518 crore. The ADB loan agreement has expired. Therefore, the remaining project loan will be taken from EIB. Of the total project cost, Tk 3,254.99 crore will be taken from ADB and Tk 1,371.95 crore from EIB. The ADB loan agreement has not been extended beyond June 2023. As a result, the ADB loan has expired, leaving Tk 231 crore unutilized out of Tk 2,821.88 lakh allocated for DPP. On the other hand, Tk 1,66.85 crore out of Tk 1,999.9 lakh of EIB has been spent for the construction of the railway. Tk 33.24 crore is left. Now it is necessary to change the mode of financing. The project period has been fixed till June this year. The Planning Commission approved it in its meeting yesterday.
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