After a long wait, Khulna-Mongla railway journey started today

Passenger trains on Khulna-Mongla route are starting from Saturday (June 01). Finally, the wait is about to end for the residents of the southern region, another door of possibilities is going to be opened in the country's tourism industry. The Benapole-Khulna-Mongla railway was completed at a cost of Tk 4,225 crore, although the initial cost of the project was Tk 1,721 crore. After a long time and three times the cost, the train service is going to be started on the new route. The train to inaugurate the new route has been named 'Khulna Palla Express'.

It is known that the Khulna-Mongla Port railway project was passed on December 21, 2010. After completing all the ancillary processes, the construction of the project officially started in September 2017. Two Indian contractors and one Bangladeshi contractor have completed the project including the railway bridge over the Rupsa Bridge.

Indian contracting company Larson & Turbo Ltd. (LNT) has done construction of railway bridge over Rupsa river. The rest of the work was done by another Indian contractor Ircon International. A contractor named Moon Brothers Joint Venture (JV) of Bangladesh has done the signaling and telecommunication work.

The project was completed in March this year after extending several times. The last phase of the project was extended till June 30 this year. It took six and a half years to complete the project.

One third of the total cost of Bangladesh government's investment project in the project is one thousand crore taka. The remaining two-thirds of the investment is by the country's Exim Bank on behalf of the Indian government.

Construction project director and additional chief engineer. Ariful Islam said, connecting the country's railway network with Mongla, the second largest seaport of Bangladesh, and establishing railway connections with Mongla port to neighboring countries, attracting tourists to enjoy the natural beauty of the world's largest mangrove forest, Sundarbans, providing comfortable rail travel to Mongla Port, The Khulna-Mongla Port Railway Project has been implemented with the aim and objective of expanding the network and making Bangladesh Railway a profitable enterprise by increasing its revenue.

He said that the regular train service on Mongla-Benapole route started from June 1 with old trains, but new trains will be added to this route after Eid al-Adha and the number of trains will also increase.

Bangladesh /RH