The much awaited Laksam-Akhaura double line railway is going to be launched for Dhaka-Chattogram route passengers.
The journey time of each intercity and mail express on the Dhaka-Chattogram route will save hours. The concerned officials said that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate this 72-km long railway on July 20. Each train can run at a certain speed limit. After the present government came to power, like the rest of the country, it took various plans to develop the Dhaka-Chittagong railway line.
With a stable government, the project work progressed quickly without any hindrance.
Officials and engineers of the Railway Transport Department said that now every inter-city train will save 1.5 hours of time as passengers can reach Dhaka-Chattogram and Chattogram-Dhaka within 4.5 hours.
The long-held dream of Dhaka-Chattogram railway passengers to ride a comfortable and fast train is going to be fulfilled. The number of trains running on the railways will also increase.
Line capacity will increase from 23 pairs to 72 pairs. Besides, the biggest advantage is that the entire railway from Chattogram to Dhaka will be converted into a double line, which will reduce the travel time to a great extent. It takes 5-6 hours to travel on the Dhaka-Chattogram railway.
If the double-line railway from Akhaura to Laksam is opened, it will be possible to travel from Chittagong to Dhaka in just 4.5 hours. Due to various reasons including corona epidemic, the duration of the project was extended till June this year.
Project Director Md. Subaktagin said, the much awaited Laksam-Akhaura double line railway work is more than 98 percent complete.
It is hoped that the 33 km railway line from Rajapur to Cumilla and Kasba to Akhaura will be inaugurated on July 20. The 72-km long Laksam-Akhaura double line railway will be commissioned in its entirety.
Railway officials said that the distance from Chattogram to Dhaka by rail is 321 km. Out of this, 118 km of railway was already double line.
After 2009, another 131 km of single line railways were double lined through several projects. Bangladesh Railways undertook a new project in 2014 to make the remaining 72 km single line railway double line.
Akhaura-Laksam railway dual gauge line is jointly implemented by China Railway Engineering Corporation, Tama Construction and Max Infrastructure of Bangladesh, a joint contractor (CTM Joint Venture).
The cost of the project is estimated at Tk 6 thousand 504 crores 54 lakh. Among these, Asian Development Bank-ADB is lending 4 thousand 118 crore 14 lakh taka and European Investment Bank-EIB 1 thousand 359 crore 75 lakh taka.
The government is spending the remaining 1 thousand 26 crores 66 lakh taka from its own funds.
