The interim government has changed the name of the country’s longest ‘Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Railway Bridge’ over the Yamuna River at Tangail to ‘Jamuna Railway Bridge’. The railway bridge connecting the capital with the northern part of the country has been renamed ‘Jamuna Rail Setu’ after the name change of ‘Bangabandhuikh Mujibur Rahman Rail Setu’.
Sunday (December 22) General Manager of Bangladesh Railway. Afzal Hussain informed this information.
He said that the name of the railway bridge built on the Yamuna river will not be Bangabandhu Rail Setu. It will now be opened as Jamuna Rail Setu. This railway bridge may be opened in January 2025.
The meter gauge railway link on the Bangabandhu Multi-Purpose Bridge in Jamuna is now allowed to carry a maximum weight of 43.70 kN/m, said Afzal Hossain. There is no room to add more coaches to the train, with one line selected. It takes each train 25 minutes to cross the bridge, which is 4.8 kilometers long, at a speed of only 20 kilometers per hour. Since there is a line on the bridge, the station on both sides has to wait a long time for the signal to arrive. In total, it takes over an hour to cover just 5 km.
He also said that there is a shortage of engines on the railways, so new trains cannot be run. However, His Excellency the President asked if it would be possible to start running new trains for the residents of Pabna and we are considering it.
It is noteworthy that on March 3, 2020, the previous government approved the plan to build a 4.80-km double-track railway bridge parallel to the Bangabandhu Multi-Purpose Bridge. The construction cost of the railway bridge was initially estimated at Rs 9,734 crore. But later his term was extended for two years. It also increases the cost of the project. Later the cost increased to Rs 16,780 crore (Tk 95,63,000). Of this amount, the government funded Tk 4,631 crore, and JICA funded Tk 12,149 crore.