As part of modernisation, Bangladesh Railway (BR) will start adding 150 Indonesian-made stainless steel coaches to its fleet from this month.

This will be the first time BR would include such coaches, which will significantly solve the crisis of bogies and bring dynamism to the Railway department, officials said.

Indonesian state-owned train manufacturer PT Inka (Persero), the first fully integrated rolling stock and automotive manufacturer in Southeast Asia, is expected to supply the passenger coaches' by the end of July this year, eight months ahead of schedule.

"They have longer life and less maintenance cost…Currently we have 1,500 coaches, which are mostly old," said Md Shamsuzzaman, project director of BR.

Asian Development Bank is funding the Tk 5.62 billion project. PT Inka will supply 100 stainless steel meter gauge and 50 broad gauge coaches within February 2017.

Indonesian embassy in Dhaka sources said PT Inka will supply 13 units of air-conditioned meter gauge sleeper coaches, 24 units of air-conditioned executive passenger coaches, 36 units of non-AC economy (shovan), 13 units of dining, 8 units of composite power carriage and 6 units of meter gauge first class sleeper coaches.

A delegation led by Shamsuzzaman visited Indonesia and inspected the trial of 100 Meter Gauge passenger coaches during February 11-18 and the results of the inspection were quite satisfactory, sources added. To maintain and assure the production quality to be in accordance with the technical specifications, all the railway coaches will undergo a series of static testing or examination before being handed over, officials said. Due to unavailability of the meter gauge railway line in Indonesia, the examination will be conducted in Bangladesh.

The first railway coach shipment of meter gauge is this month, according to a PT Inka press release yesterday.

As for the broad gauge, PT Inka will supply 4 units of air-conditioned sleeper coaches, 4 units of first class air-conditioned passenger, 4 units of first class sleeper, 25 units of non air-conditioned passenger, 8 units of dining with pantry and guard brake, and 5 units of power supply coaches.

Meanwhile, talking to The Daily Star yesterday, senior officials of BR said the government has now implemented 41 projects for the development of railways and planned to bring a significant progress within the next four years.