The Bangabandhu Railway Bridge over the Jamuna is set to be inaugurated next month, but people will not get the full benefit of it until at least 2030.

Trains travelling to and from the north and northwest would still have to wait at stations to let other trains pass until the single line between Joydebpur and Ishwardi is converted to a double line.

People heading for Bogura would still have to take a 112km detour.

This is because the works of two projects, which were supposed to be done or almost done by now, have not even started yet. One of them is for the double line from Joydebpur to Ishwardi and another for a direct line between Sirajganj and Bogura.

The projects had faced delays and construction work could not start even five years after approval. Authorities now hope to start the work within 2026 and finish by 2030, officials said.

Because of the delay, the 4.8km dedicated railway bridge being built at a cost of Tk 16,780.95 crore with foreign loans will remain under-utilised for at least the next five years, as the double-line bridge will be fed by a single line.

As the capacity of the single line has been exhausted, Bangladesh Railway cannot increase the number of trains. The existing trains take longer to reach their destinations and often run behind schedule due to line maintenance work and accidents.

A train has to travel an extra 112km to go to Bogura from Sirajganj as the existing line goes through Iswardi-Santahar- Kahalu.

To solve all these problems, three separate projects involving Tk 36,611.26 crores were taken up.

The government took up a project in January 2016 to construct the Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Railway Bridge over the Jamuna.

The dual-gauge double-track bridge is being built some 300 metres upstream of the Bangabandhu Bridge, which has a single rail line.

Japan is funding 72 percent of the cost as soft loans. Two Japanese joint-venture firms are building the bridge.

Speaking to The Daily Star on November 4, Project Director Al Fattah Md Masudur said 96 percent work of the project has been done, and all civil work would be completed by December 22.

"So, the bridge would be ready for opening in late December. The government will make the final decision on the date," he said.

The Joydebpur-Ishwardi double line project, taken up in November 2018, was supposed to be completed by December 2024 under a government-to-government initiative between Bangladesh and China.

The BR completed cost negotiations with a Chinese company. But China, in March 2021, declined to finance the project citing "lack of in-depth preliminary work and insufficient feasibility study".

The government then turned to Japan, which agreed to a loan for the project. In October last year, BR took up a separate project, involving Tk 146 crores, to draw up a detailed design and prepare bidding documents.

After completing the detailed design and hiring contractors, BR hopes to start construction work by mid-2026, a BR official said, adding that it would take at least three years or up to June 2029 to install the line.

Replying to a question, the official said opening the Bangabandhu Railway Bridge will give some respite as it would reduce travel time a little.

The bridge, with its single line, has weight and speed restrictions for trains. 

"But if we want to get the full benefit of the bridge, we have to complete both the projects," he said.

BR, in October 2018, took up a project to cut short the distance between Dhaka and Bogura to 212km from the existing 324km.

Under a Tk 5,579.70 crore project, an 86.51km dual gauge rail line from Shaheed M Mansur Ali Station in Sirajganj to Bogura will be built. The project was supposed to be done by June 2023.

But BR has only been able to complete updating the feasibility study and detailed design, while the process to acquire 960 acres is just half done.

It is estimated that the project cost would be around Tk 8,500 crores, said Project Director Monirul Islam Firoz.

As the cost will rise, they would need $300 million more in loan from India, he said, adding that they have already sought the Indian approval.

"We hope to start physical work of the project by late 2025 or early 2026, if everything goes well," he said, adding that they would need three years to complete the job.

At the moment BR runs about 40 trains a day via the road/rail bridge. Once all three projects are complete, it will be able to run 88 trains a day.

BR Director General Sarder Sahadat Ali said opening of the bridge will save around 40 minutes as it takes around one hour to cross the Bangabandhu Bridge and its east and west stations.

"But it's true that we will not get the full benefits of the bridge until these two projects are completed," he told The Daily Star yesterday.

He said they were trying to expedite the two projects.