Dhaka: Bangladesh Railway today ran its first train with passengers onboard on the newly built dual gauge double line railway bridge on the River Jamuna. ‘The much-awaited train operation on the newly built railway bridge over the Jamuna River has begun with Dhaka-bound intercity train ‘Silk City Express’ crossing it at 11:17am,’ project director of the bridge Al Fattah M Masudur Rahman said. He said the train took 10 minutes to cross the 4.8-kilometre-long bridge at a speed of 50 kilometres per hour (kph) though the bridge was constructed with the capacity of bearing carriages at 120 kph.
According to Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, trains previously required a speed of only 20 kph to cross the existing train bridge, which is an extended structure of the Jamuna Multi Purpose Bridge. The dedicated railway bridge is set to be formally opened on March 18. Located 300 metres upstream of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge, the new railway bridge will eventually accommodate at least 88 trains crossing daily at high speeds. A trial run was previously carried out on the bridge when a train crossed it at a speed of 120 kph.
Since the opening of the Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge in 1998, approximately 38 trains have been crossing daily, connecting the central part of Bangladesh, including Dhaka, with the northern, northwestern, southern, and southwestern regions. Railway officials confirmed that the government decided to construct the dedicated railway bridge in 2020, with its foundation stone laid on November 29 of the same year. The project was completed at a cost of Tk. 16,780.96 crore, with 72.4 percent of the funding provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as a loan, while the government funded the remaining amount.
Japan’s OTG and IHI constructed the bridge as a joint venture project. The construction required 7.667 kilometres of approach embankment and loop and 30.73 kilometres of railway tracks. Until March 18, one of the two tracks on the bridge will be used for train movement in both directions. After its formal inauguration, trains will run on both tracks.