Finally the wait is over. Railway communication with Cox’s Bazar across the country has started.
The long-awaited Cox’s Bazar-Dohazari railway line was inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at 12:58 PM on Saturday (November 11).
The Prime Minister inaugurated this project from the iconic oyster-shaped railway station in Cox’s Bazar. After addressing the inaugural rally, the Prime Minister will take a train from Cox’s Bazar to Ramu.
Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan, members of various parliamentary constituencies and officials of various levels of railways were also present during the inauguration.
Earlier, the Minister of Railways said that Cox’s Bazar can be brought directly from Dhaka by train from December 1. The railway station is designed in the iconic oyster shape. Passengers and tourists can enjoy all the modern facilities here. The minimum fare on this route is Tk 188 in mail train and the maximum fare is Tk 1,725 in intercity AC berth.
Before the construction of this railway, there was no rail connection with Cox’s Bazar. Initially it was a single line dual gauge track construction project from Dohazari to Ramu to Cox’s Bazar and from Ramu to Ghumdhum. It was supposed to build a total of 129.58 kilometers of railway line. Later the work on Ramu to Ghoodhoom portion was postponed. Now the construction of 100.83 km railway line from Chittagong’s Dohazari to Cox’s Bazar via Ramu has been completed.
On April 3, 2011, the Prime Minister laid the foundation stone for the construction of meter gauge railway up to Dohazari-Ramu-Cox’s Bazar. This includes 88 km from Chittagong’s Dohazari to Ramu and 12 km from Ramu to Cox’s Bazar.
According to project sources, the initial cost of the project was 1 thousand 800 crores. In 2016, after revising the project proposal, the cost increased to 18 thousand 34 crore 47 lakh taka. So that the cost per kilometer is about 183 crore rupees. And out of this only about Tk 215 crore has been spent on the construction of the station in Cox’s Bazar. Asian Development Bank (ADB) is lending 13 thousand 115 crores for the entire project. The remaining 4 thousand 119 crores have been paid from the government’s own funds.
News Source: Bangla Tribune
