Railway to get 114 new coaches

Bangladesh Railway is set to add 114 new passenger coaches from India and Indonesia to its fleet as part of reform activities to provide passengers modern, safe and quality services.

Railways Secretary Firoze Salauddin today announced this after inaugurating the “Passenger Service Week-2015”, marking the fifth founding anniversary of the railway ministry.

The objective of the week is to improve service quality, maintain departure timetables, keep trains and railway stations clean and extend cooperation to the passengers, said Railway Director General M. Amzad Hossain.

 Last month at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), the government decided to add a total of 250 new passenger coaches for smoother travel.

Of the estimated Tk1,374 crore cost of the rail carriage project, Asian Development Bank will provide Tk1,000 crore and the rest will be provided by the government’s coffer. Bangladesh Railway is expected to complete the project by June 2019.

The government plans to procure 200 meter gauge rail coaches and 50 broad gauge rail coaches, said planning minister AHM Mustafa Kamal.