Bangladesh Railway Minister Sheikh Abdul Alam has informed the nation’s parliament that 200 broad-gauge railway coaches will be imported from India this year. The European Investment Bank will finance the acquisition. The coaches are expected to be delivered between June this year and the end of 2027.
Bangladesh is also planning to expand its railway network, and the new coaches will be put to use in the new routes, to be decided once the delivery is complete.
The information was shared by the Railway Minister as a response to questions posed by Jamat MPs Ilyas Molla and Ruhul Amin during the question session.
The Daily Star has reported that the expansion plan envisioned by the Tarique Rahman government involves procuring 260 broad-gauge passenger coaches, 46 broad-gauge locomotives, and 50 meter-gauge locomotives in the near future. Bangladesh plans to improve inter-city connectivity by running more trains between Dhaka and the northern districts.
Bangladesh currently operates 1591 km of meter gauge lines, 1066 km of broad gauge and 770 km of dual gauge tracks, comprising a total of over 3428 km of railway network in the country.
Bangladesh’s relations with India, strained under the caretaker government of Mohammad Yunus, have visibly improved under the new, democratically elected government of Tarique Rahman. Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman of Bangladesh is currently on his first visit to India, a landmark development after months of strained diplomatic ties and hostility from the Yunus government.
