PM launches commuter train services on Dhaka-N`ganj route

Bangladesh Railway, for the first time in the country, has introduced modern train service on Dhaka-Narayanganj route, aiming to ensure faster and comfortable journey for the commuters as well as easing traffic pressure on roads.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the train service at Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital on Wednesday morning.

Railways Minister Md Mujibul Huq, local MP Rashed Khan Menon and acting Secretary of the Ministry Abul Kalam Azad and Bangladesh Railway Director General Abu Taher also spoke on the occasion.

Addressing the function, the Prime Minister said with the introduction of modern and faster DEMU train service, the government has reached the existing train service of the developed countries to the countrymen. “This will help cut travel time and increase the interest of commuters to travel by trains.”

Besides, she said, the new train service would also make the travel on Dhaka-Narayanganj route much easier, faster and comfortable and thus reducing traffic congestion in the southern part of the capital.

Hasina mentioned that some 20 sets of DEMU trains costing Tk 460 crore have been imported and all the DEMU sets are expected to come in the country within the next two months. She said that those DEMU sets would be launched gradually on Dhaka-Joydevpur route, circular train in Chittagong metropolis, Chittagong, Laksham, Comilla, Akhaura, Sylhet, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and Lalmonirhat.

The country`s first high-speed commuter train service, DEMU, will ply the Kamalapur-Narayanganj route with 300 passengers. Tangsang Railway Vehicle Co Ltd of China is providing these 20 sets of DEMU trains comprising 60 units.

Each unit of the DEMU having three coaches will be able to make six trips a day on the 20-km Kamalapur-Narayanganj route with some 300 passengers. It will take only 20-25 minutes to reach Narayanganj from Kamalapur railway station.

The DEMU trains have engines on both ends which allow them to travel in both directions. There will be 151 seats on its three compartments of the train with additional capacity of carrying 149 standing passengers.

Apart from the initial operation on Dhaka-Narayanganj route, the government has plans to extend the service soon on six eastern and three western zone routes.

Later, the Prime Minister went round the DEMU train pressed into service.  Earlier, she offered a munajat on the occasion.