Chattogram Bureau :
Dhaka-Chattagram railway is the lifeblood of Bangladesh economy. For several years, plans were made to build an important cord line to improve rail connectivity on this route. Plan was stalled due to various reasons. The interim government formed after the fall of the Awami League government in the student-public uprising has taken the initiative to restart the cord line survey work, which was stopped. The distance between Dhaka and Chattagram by rail is 320 kilometers.
On this route, one has to travel from Dhaka to Chattagram via Tongi-Bhairab-Akhaura. This takes more time.
To reduce this extra time and make train travel easier, Bangladesh Railway has taken the plan to build the Dhaka-Laksum cord line. The survey work is underway. Railway officials said that the cost of building the cord line is low, and the construction time will also be short.
If the project is implemented, it will increase the income of the railway along with the maximum passenger transport. Currently, only three percent of goods can be carried by train on the current route.
The remaining 97 percent of goods are transported by road. If the cord line is built, the transport of goods by rail will increase by about 37 percent. Overall, the railway’s income will increase from both passenger and goods. According to Bangladesh Railway sources, this initiative to build a cord line on the Dhaka-Chattagram route is a long time ago. The feasibility of the project was examined in 2010. The Ministry of Railways also prepared a proposal to build this line in 2012 under a public-private partnership.
However, for unknown reasons, that initiative did not move forward. After the Asian Development Bank (ADB) showed interest in this project, a technical assistance project of Tk 235.37 crore was approved in 2020.
Then, a survey was started for the construction of a cord line on the Dhaka-Laksam route through a project called ‘Railway Connectivity Improvement Preparatory Facility’. A consortium of three consulting firms from Japan, France and Malaysia was appointed for the work. That work stopped in 2024. On August 5, the interim government took the initiative to start the work of the cord line survey.
A meeting was held in November last year to implement it. The meeting gave instructions to restart the survey. Director of the ‘Cord line Technical Assistance Project’ Md. Abidur Rahman said, as per the decision of our last meeting, the survey work is ongoing on this project. Its term ends in June. Several decisions were taken in the meeting. After the survey, it will be finalized which proposals will be easier to implement.
