Made in China, repaired in Bangladesh

In 2013, the government imported 20 sets of DEMU (diesel–electric multiple unit) trains from China's Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company Limited.

The import cost was Tk 650 crore. The trains were supposed to run for at least 35 years -- or that's what the Chinese company committed to.

But all 20 trains went off the tracks within four years of operation.

This not only wasted so much money but also made people suffer, as they had to deal with lack of regular locomotives for travelling.

Bangladesh Railway was baffled when it contacted the supplier company in 2018 for repairing the trains, as the charge they demanded was almost equal to the import cost.

This left the authorities clueless, as they had to abandon the DEMU train project as a result.

But in 2020, local experts came to the rescue.

Two of the 20 trains were brought to Central Locomotive Workshop in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur.

Md Rafiqul Islam, chief executive of the workshop, said these trains are "software-electric, module-controlled vehicles", which is something new to local experts.

Each train has 40 electric-software modules for operation, he explained.

The experts didn't give in; they planned on playing to their strengths. The modules were replaced with inverters.

Batteries made in China were replaced with a set of batteries available in local markets.

All the parts used for modifying and customising the trains were bought at a cheap rate from the local market, said the engineer. It was yet to be estimated how much was spent to repair each train, but sources told this correspondent that it was around Tk 50 lakh.

The locomotive engineers collaborated with engineers of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology for this endeavour, Rafiqul added.

Initiatives will be taken to repair the other inoperative trains, he said.

Their hard work of more than a year finally paid off, as one of the repaired trains, ready to be up and running again, was handed over to Bangladesh Railway recently, after a successful trial run from Parbatipur to Panchagarh, confirmed the railway officials in Parbatipur.

Another test was held on Thursday. The other train will also be back on track soon, said the officials. Initiatives will be taken to repair the remaining, they added.

It can carry at least 700 to 800 passengers, said Harun Ur Rashid, a driver of the train.

Monjur-Ul Alam Chowdhury, additional director general of railway, said, "Local experts successfully repaired the train at a much cheaper rate, which helped us save funds."

"Our experts proved and showed their skills," he said.