India hands over 20 Broad Gauge Diesel Locomotives to Bangladesh under grant assistance

Bangladesh received 20 Broad Gauge (BG) locomotives from India on Tuesday which will help augment the capacity and efficiency of Bangladesh Railway for handling the growing volume of passenger and freight train operations in Bangladesh.

The locomotives were handed over at Darshana-Gede Interchange point and virtually flagged off by Minister of Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw. Bangladesh Minister of Railways, Md. Nurul Islam Sujan received them on behalf of the Government of Bangladesh.

These 20 locomotives are part of grant assistance from India which fulfils a commitment made during the visit of Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina to India in September 2022. Earlier, in July 2020, India had handed over 10 BG locomotives to Bangladesh. 

Speaking on the occasion, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that Railways are playing a vital role in improving and strengthening rail connectivity across the border and improving trade between both the countries. He said currently five BG rail lines are operational between the two countries. These include Gede- Darsana, Benapole- Petrapole, Singhabad- Rohanpur, Radhikapur- Birol and Haldibari-Chilahati. Work on two more cross border rail connectivities, Akhaura-Agartala and Mahihasan-Shahbazpur are progressing well and are likely to be completed and commissioned shortly.

He also offered to share the Indian experience with electrification of the railway network with Bangladesh, as electrification was the way forward to enhance efficiency and reduce carbon footprint

Rail connectivity is one of the key components of the bilateral development partnership between Indian and Bangladesh. Railway sector projects of over USD 300 million under Indian Line of



Credit having been completed already, and projects worth over USD 1.69 billion at various stages of implementation.

Bangladesh Rail Minister Md. Nurul Islam Sujan thanked India for providing the locomotives which will help improve both the goods and passenger train services in the country. He expressed the hope that collaboration between the two countries in the railway sector will increase further.

High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Pranay Verma joined the virtual ceremony from Rail Bhaban in Dhaka.

The Government of India is also committed to undertaking training programmes for Bangladesh Railway personnel for skill development, and to undertaking projects for digitization of Bangladesh Railway operations, including for passenger and freight management systems.

Three pairs of passenger trains currently run between India and Bangladesh which includes Kolkata-Dhaka Maitree Express, Kolkata-Khulna Bandhan Express and New Jalpaiguri- Dhaka Mitali Express.

Trade between both the countries via rail have seen consistent growth. In the last financial year, interchange of close to 100 cargo trains per month took place. Approximately 2.66 MT cargo was sent to Bangladesh exporting commodities like Stone, Food Grains, China Clay, Gypsum, Maize, Onion and other essential items, Since 2020 permission has been given to operate parcel container and NMG rakes which normally carry agricultural products, fabrics, finished goods, light commercial vehicles and tractors. A new traffic of geo-synthetic bags has just started and 3 Parcel trains have been sent from Gujarat, said the official press release of the Ministry of Railways.