Project officials said the construction of the railway track would be completed by June, but it would take another two months to complete some other works.
According to project director Afzal Hussain, 48 percent of the work on the upper part of the railway bridge has been completed. “We hope to complete the rest by next June.”
The rail link project was delayed due to gas pipeline installation work on the ground floor of the bridge scheduled to last until 2022.
Afzal said, “We were able to start the work of laying the rail tracks in August last year. It is expected that the rail tracks from Dhaka to Bhanga will be completed by June.”
“But some other works will still be incomplete, including installation of signaling system. We hope to start train services by September.”
The work of laying railway track from Dhaka to Bhanga has been divided into three parts. Afzal said the 32 km stretch from Jazeera to Bhanga in Shariatpur is 87 per cent complete, making the most progress among others. Track coaches have also been run on experimental basis in this section.
About 80 percent work on the 51 km track from Mawa to Dhaka has been completed. This section is also expected to be completed by June.
There is a need to speed up the construction of 90 km railway line from Bhanga to Jashore. The progress in this section is 62 per cent.
Afzal said that the overall progress of the project is 73 percent.