DOHAZARI-GUMDUM RAIL LINK Land acquisition delay hits project

The delay in land acquisition is hampering the construction of the Dohazari–Gumdum rail line, a fast-track project undertaken in 2010 to establish direct train services between Dhaka and Cox’s Bazar.   

Project officials, while talking to New Age on Saturday, said that the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation under the agriculture ministry was yet hand over the requisite land despite getting the compensation money six months ago.

The delay is affecting the construction of a railway station at Jhilongjha in Cox’s Bazar, said project director Mofizur Rahman.

The Power Grid Company of Bangladesh, Power Development Board and Rural Electrification Board were yet to relocate transmission lines, poles and towers despite repeated requests in the past, he said.

Project officials apprehend that a further delay in handing over the land might increase the overall project cost for the payment of higher land compensation money, necessitating a further extension of the deadline that would expire in June 2022.

The construction of the 28.75km single-gauge track from Ramu to Gumdum under the 128km railway line project will be implemented after laying 100.83km dual-gauge rail line now underway.

Some 1,391 acres of land have been acquired for the 100.83km section and 350 acres will be acquired for the 28.75km section.

The Bangladesh Railway took up the project in 2010, to be completed in 2016, at an estimated cost of Tk 18,523.4 crore.

But the delay in resource mobilisation from the Asian Development Bank forced the government in 2016 to revise the project implementation deadline until 2022.

The ADB is providing US$ 1.5 billion for the rail line, also a part of the Trans Asian Rail Line Network under the South Asia Sub-regional Economic Cooperation Railway Connectivity Investment Programme.

Ministry of railway secretary Md Salim Reza on Saturday said that they had already reminded the agriculture ministry and the Power Division for handing over the stipulated land at meetings held in the second week of the current month.

He hoped that the land would be available soon.

Railway ministry officials, however, said that such reminders were given on a number of occasions in the last six months but without any positive outcome.

According to the development projects update, reviewed by the railway ministry in last month, some Tk 155 crore was spent in the July-September period on the Dohazari-Gumdum rail line, Tk 45 crore less than the target of Tk 200 crore.

There is an allocation of Tk 1,500 crore in the current 2020-21 fiscal year for the project.

The cumulative progress of the project is 27 per cent financially and 43 per cent physically until September.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net