114 new coaches soon

Bangladesh Railway is set to add 114 new coaches from India and Indonesia to its fleet.

Railways Secretary Firoze Salauddin told this to journalists yesterday after inaugurating "Passenger Service Week-2015" at Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital marking the fifth founding anniversary of the railways ministry. He and other officials greeted passengers with flowers and chocolates.

The objective of the week is to improve the quality of services, run trains on time, keep trains and railway stations clean and extend all out cooperation to passengers, said Bangladesh Railway Director General M Amzad Hossain.

Last month, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council decided to purchase 250 new coaches, including the 114.

The purchase was part of an estimated Tk 1,374 crore railways carriage project of which Asian Development Bank is to provide Tk 1,000 crore and the government the rest. Bangladesh Railway is expected to complete the project by June 2019.

The government plans to procure 200 meter gauge coaches and 50 broad gauge coaches, said Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.

Now Bangladesh Railway has 1,165 meter gauge coaches, but 591 of those are running with various defects and lack passenger amenities.

On the other hand, out of Bangladesh Railway's 324 broad gauge coaches, 78 have already crossed their economic life.