Railway inks contract with Indian company for installing signal lines

Bangladesh Railway Authority has signed an agreement with an Indian contractor company KEC International Limited for the installation of signal and telecom lines along rail tracks.

Project Director Nazneen Ara Keya on behalf of Bangladesh Railway and Subrajit Jana on behalf of KEC International Limited signed the agreement at a ceremony held at the Railway Bhaban in the capital on Sunday.

New Computer Based Interlocking (CBI) signalling system will be installed in seven stations –

Dhaka, Tejgaon, Dhaka Cantonment, Dhaka Airport, Tongi, Dhirashram and Joydebpur—under the Tk349.45 crore project, which is part of another big project of the Railway.

Besides, this project will introduce three new Tk48 crore optical fibre cables. Also, coordination will be done with the Centralised Control Centre of Dhaka station and the CBI system of Gendaria, Pubail, Gazipur and Mouchak stations. A further signalling warning system will be installed at the existing 37 level crossing gates which are manned.

This project will reduce accidents, especially rail derailments. Access control and security will be ensured by the construction of a railway boundary wall. Above all, this project will be helpful in the socio-economic development of the country.

The contract validity period is 30 months and the defect liability period is 12 months. After the defect liability period, there is a further 24 months repair period.

The project of constructing the third and fourth dual-gauge railway lines on the Dhaka-Tongi route and a second dual-gauge line on the Tongi-Joydebpur route was approved in 2012. 

There are two parts to this project, one is the construction of railway lines and the other part is the installation of signal and telecom lines.

The railway line construction work began in 2017. But the contract for laying signalling and telecom lines was signed yesterday, more than a decade after the main project was approved. 

Regarding the delay, Project Director Nazneen Ara Keya said the cost of setting up the signalling system will be higher than what was estimated in the project proposal. So, the project had to be revised.

The total cost of the entire project is estimated at Tk3,342 crore, of which, the government will provide Tk521.39 crore and the Indian loan is Tk2,821.16 crore.