Bangladesh Railway yesterday struck a deal with Japan’s Marubeni Corporation to procure 11 metre-gauge locomotives costing Tk 439 crore.
Of the total cost, Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will provide Tk 307 crore, while the rest will be borne by the public exchequer.
Hyundai Rotem Company will manufacture the train engines in South Korea and will deliver those within 18 months.
Additional Director General of railway Khalilur Rahman and Naohiro Yoshida of Marubeni signed the deal at a function at the capital’s Railway Bhaban.
Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain, Secretary of Railway Division Fazle Kabir and other senior officials of the ministry, railway and Jica were present.
Addressing the function, the minister said the locomotives will contribute significantly to improve railway services.
The new locomotives will be able to run at a speed of around 100 kilometres per hour, 20 km faster than the existing ones, said Shamsuzzaman, director of procurement of 11 nos metre-gauge locomotives project.
The engines will pull both passenger and goods trains on the Dhaka-Chittagong route, considered the country’s most important rail route due to the Chittagong port, according to railway officials.
Over the years, the number of locomotives has been reduced to 295 from 486. Moreover, most of those are 30 to 40 years old, they maintained.
Scarcity of locomotives has long been blamed largely for the present deplorable state of the railway sector as the successive governments have failed to take initiatives to procure new engines.
-With The Daily Star input
