Staff Reporter:

After a long six years, Tk 1,920.10 crore has been released for the acquisition of at least 960 acres of land for the Bogura-Sirajganj railway construction project.

It has revived the Bogura-Sirajganj railway construction project showing a new ray of hope.

According to the relevant sources, three junctions and seven railway stations will be built to establish the new rail connectivity between these two districts-Sirajganj and Bogura. Not only that, this initiative will help to reduce the distance between Dhaka and Bogura by 112 kilometers as well as the travel time will be saved by about 4 hours.

As a result, suffering of the commuters will be reduced along with saving time and money. Besides, businesses will be boosted escalating the northern economy.

Sources from the Land Acquisition Branch of the Sirajganj Deputy Commissioner’s Office informed that, after six years of the project approval, the allocated land acquisition funds were released in a letter signed by the Deputy Secretary of the Ministry of Railways Shafiur Rahman on June 16.

The letter said that in favor of the project titled ‘Construction of a new dual gauge from Bogura to Shaheed M Mansur Ali Station in Sirajganj’, funds for ‘land acquisition’ under the capital expenditure sector were released from the GOB allocated money in the revised annual development program for the fiscal year 2024-25.

Sources of the Bogura-Sirajganj railway construction project said that, 960 acres of land will be acquired on the 85-kilometer railway line between Bogura and Sirajganj.

The land includes 510 acres for the 52-kilometer railway line within the Bogura border and 450 acres of land in the 32-kilometer section of the Sirajganj section.

About Tk 1,921 crore was allocated against the land acquisition for the project.

Out of which Tk 1,920 crore has been released. A joint investigation has already been completed through a survey of field in the two districts.

There are plans to build a total of nine railway stations under the project. Of them, four railway stations will be established in Bogura and five in Sirajganj. In addition, two junctions will be established at Ranirhat in Sirajganj and Bogura.

In view of the long-cherished demand, the project was approved in the meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on October 30, 2018.

It was decided to implement the project with the help of a loan from the Bangladesh government and India. The potential cost is estimated at Tk 5,579.7 million. Of this, India will provide a loan of Tk 3,146.59 million.

Initially, the project was supposed to be completed by June 30, 2023. But due to delays in appointing consultants and finalizing the design, it was not possible.

After the Indian authorities appointed consultants on September 27, 2021, they finalized the design on June 30, 2023. Later, the period was extended until 2026.

However, there are doubts about completing the project in this deadline.

Bogura-Sirajganj Railway Project Director and Chief Engineer Monirul Islam Firoz told that, the land acquisition of the project has reached at the final stage. Once this is completed, the land for the railway will be ready. After that, the visible work of the project will start soon through the contractor organization. This will further speed up the communication system of the northern region.