Chattogram Bureau :
Chattogram is going to have a metro rail network as the second city in the country after Dhaka where the service is due to be launched in December this year. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday asked the authorities concerned to build the metro rail from the Shah Amanat International Airport to the Chattogram Railway Station in the port city. She issued the directive at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec) on Tuesday.
Planning Minister MA Mannan briefed journalists on the outcome of the meeting and said the Chattogram City Corporation has been asked to send a project proposal to this end.
Planning Commission will then complete the process of approving the project proposal with due importance, he added.
The planning minister also said they should also plan metro rail-like development projects in other big cities of the country where there are large old airports.
The prime minister joined the meeting virtually from her official residence Ganabhaban while ministers and secretaries from the NEC meeting room at the city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
The implementation of the first metro rail or Mass Rapid Transit (MRT-6) Line in Dhaka started in 2012 with Japanese funding. Initially, the project was supposed to be completed in 2024, but the work of the Uttara-Agargaon portion of MRT-6 will end in December this year following the PM’s directive to finish it early.
Meanwhile Bangladesh Railway is planning to reduce dependency on diesel-run locomotives.
As part of the state-owned service provider’s modernisation, the authorities are planning to introduce electric-, CNG- and LNG-run engines, Railway Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujon said on Tuesday while sharing his recent experience of visiting railways in some European countries.At present, Bangladesh’s railway system is totally diesel-dependent, while neighbouring India has almost converted a major portion of its trains into electric-run.
