Bullet train for only Dhaka-Ctg route: PM

[UKBengali]

https://www.thedailystar.net/busine...dhaka-to-chittagong-route-hasina-says-1851049

I know the article is a little old and the consultancy work has now been halted but what are people's opinion on this project?

1. BD will only get one 'bullet train" line from capital Dhaka to port city of Chittagong with a travel time of only 1 hour - this will make it possible to even commute between the 2 of BD's largest cities.

2. Cost will be around 12 billion US dollars and so less than Roopur nuclear power plant.

 

[Bengal71]

https://www.thedailystar.net/busine...dhaka-to-chittagong-route-hasina-says-1851049

I know the article is a little old and the consultancy work has now been halted but what are people's opinion on this project?

1. BD will only get one 'bullet train" line from capital Dhaka to port city of Chittagong with a travel time of only 1 hour - this will make it possible to even commute between the 2 of BD's largest cities.

2. Cost will be around 12 billion US dollars and so less than Roopur nuclear power plant.

It will be a white elephant. It's not required at this stage of economy.

 

[UKBengali]

It will be a white elephant. It's not required at this stage of economy.

It will not be ready till late 2020s.

Consultancy work is not even done yet.

 

[bluesky]

Instead of another prestige project, how about solving the curse of annual water logging? The so-called bullet train line would be built by foreign companies with foreign money and technology. Many people believe this is a case of high development when our own people are intellectually incapable to contribute.

For me, all that glitters is not gold. So, first improve the Dhaka-Ctg rly line by constructing double track by the BD people themselves before indulging with a non starter project.

Bullet trains belong to a different league of countries who have technological superiority. BD being an LDC and technologically inferior country does not belong to that exclusive group of bullet trains.

 

[UKBengali]

Instead of another prestige project, how about solving the curse of annual water logging? The so-called bullet train line would be built by foreign companies with foreign money and technology. Many people believe this is a case of high development when our own people are intellectually incapable to contribute.

For me, all that glitters is not gold. So, first improve the Dhaka-Ctg rly line by constructing double track by the BD people themselves before indulging with a non starter project.

Bullet trains belong to a different league of countries who have technological superiority. BD being an LDC and technologically inferior country does not belong to that exclusive group of bullet trains.

Would you prefer if the money was instead spent on upgrading all the major city-connecting railway lines in BD to say a still impressive 160km/h using BD companies and workers?

 

[JackTheRipper]

Bullet Trains are good, if country can afford... Otherwise useless..

 

[Bengal71]

Would you prefer if the money was instead spent on upgrading all the major city-connecting railway lines in BD to say a still impressive 160km/h using BD companies and workers?

I would. I would also like a bridge over the Meghna river near Barisal, Bhola, Nokahli area. Apparently no moron in our political leadership ever thought about it. We have a hub and spoke topology in transportation across the country. If a man from Satkhira wants to reach Chittagong, he must first travel to Dhaka and from there to Chittagong.

 

[UKBengali]

I would. I would also like a bridge over the Meghna river near Barisal, Bhola, Nokahli area. Apparently no moron in our political leadership ever thought about it. We have a hub and spoke topology in transportation across the country. If a man from Satkhira wants to reach Chittagong, he must first travel to Dhaka and from there to Chittagong.

I am also of the same opinion.

It would be nice to have this "bullet train" and connecting the two largest cities would be beneficial in so many ways with a fast link such as this, but maybe right now better to spend this money on getting all major city-connecting railway lines up to a still impressive 160km/h.

Since BD is such as small country this would still mean that you could travel by train from Dhaka to most other cities in BD in 2 hours or less.

The extra speed and time saving at this time is not worth it.

 

[fallstuff]

Bullet train is nice to have, but not a need of the moment. The lines installed now are capable of doing 70 mph with some upgrades. I do believe Bangladesh as a small country is an ideal candidate for high speed train as it is capable of moving about a 1000 people over shorter distance.

My 2 cents are upgrade all the major highways to at least 4-6 lanes and the current train lines to go up to 70-80 mph.

 

[vishwambhar]

I am also of the same opinion.

It would be nice to have this "bullet train" and connecting the two largest cities would be beneficial in so many ways with a fast link such as this, but maybe right now better to spend this money on getting all major city-connecting railway lines up to a still impressive 160km/h.

Since BD is such as small country this would still mean that you could travel by train from Dhaka to most other cities in BD in 2 hours or less.

The extra speed and time saving at this time is not worth it.

Since Bangladesh is geographically smaller country it should not have bullet train as travel time in normal trains also will not be that long..... funds should be used elsewhere....

I don't understand why south Korea which is even smaller landmass than Bangladesh needs bullet train as even in normal trains one can reach to any part of country within a single day..... same with Japan..... but these are highly developed countries and for them it's like a show off which they can afford.....

Bullet trains are actually ideal only for big size countries like Russia, Brazil, China, Argentina, India, USA or even medium sized countries like Pakistan, Myanmar,Turkey, Egypt where traveling hours in normal trains are longer....

 

[Arthur]

Absolutely unnecessary spending. Why not use this $12 billion to :

1. Expand rail network to cities & areas previously excluded.

2. Rehabilitate old lines & reopen lines that were closed.

3. Upgrade all major lines between big cities & district towns to double lines.

4. Upgrade the lines to increase speed to 100-120 kmph for major inter-city mail trains & 80-100 kmph for important district towns & urban growth Centers.

5. Digitalise signaling network with 21'st century technology.

After this we might not have a fancy railway system but we will have a robust network that will support our economy for decades to come.

 

[rishav]

Should look into it around 2025 so that the project is complete by the turn of the next decade .

 

[UKBengali]

Should look into it around 2025 so that the project is complete by the turn of the next decade .

It still is an unnecessary expense for a relatively poor country like BD.

We need to look at the geography of BD. Please see map below:

Pretty much all cities are within 2-250 km of the capital Dhaka.

Even with a "high-speed" railway of 160km/h maximum speed you are looking at most a 2 hour journey from nearly every city in BD to Dhaka.

Like I said before I would spend that 12 billion US dollars on upgrading all the rail lines connecting all major cities to 160km/h and then BD will have a fast and efficient rail network connecting all the major cities of BD.

As @bluesky said keep as much of the work in-house and BD may even be able to get ToT from countries like Indonesia(@Indos ) to build the hundreds of train carriages that will be required to serve the new network.

If decades down the line BD becomes a rich country, then yeah go for this but now is not the time.

 

[Arulmozhi Varman]

Since Bangladesh is geographically smaller country it should not have bullet train as travel time in normal trains also will not be that long..... funds should be used elsewhere....

I don't understand why south Korea which is even smaller landmass than Bangladesh needs bullet train as even in normal trains one can reach to any part of country within a single day..... same with Japan..... but these are highly developed countries and for them it's like a show off which they can afford.....

Bullet trains are actually ideal only for big size countries like Russia, Brazil, China, Argentina, India, USA or even medium sized countries like Pakistan, Myanmar,Turkey, Egypt where traveling hours in normal trains are longer....

Yes and no. I also wouldn't want long distance bullet trains in India yet. The reason is cost estimation will be costlier than airlines for long distance bullet trains. China still hasn't made a single year of profit except for one line in all her years of operations of Bullet trains.
We should concentrate on smaller routes where the return on investment is higher for the investments. Like Delhi Chandigarh, Bangalore Chennai Hyderabad, Mumbai Pune etc.

 

[Bilal9]

Would you prefer if the money was instead spent on upgrading all the major city-connecting railway lines in BD to say a still impressive 160km/h using BD companies and workers?

Exactly. that's what I was going to say.

Sitting on tattered beggar mat and dreaming of palaces and riches...

Let's get high-speed rail first before jumping into dreams of bullet train.

Let's get people clean, comfortable seats on train-coaches that leave and arrive ON TIME.

Let's get 100 Ib. rail tracks that sit on solid concrete sleepers instead of flimsy flexing 30 Ibs. rail we have now that de-rail locos every few days - because of massive chori.

At current state of our tracks trains cannot exceed 100 KMPH much less high speed train speeds of 200 KMPH.

Let's get better reliable broad gauge rail engine than the antiquated leftover stuff we get from the neighboring country.

When Railway is unable to clear up the bustees near the train station in Dhaka and can't take care of Jhupree-pattis, I don't have any expectation of Bullet train from the corrupt Rail ministry.

I would. I would also like a bridge over the Meghna river near Barisal, Bhola, Nokahli area. Apparently no moron in our political leadership ever thought about it. We have a hub and spoke topology in transportation across the country. If a man from Satkhira wants to reach Chittagong, he must first travel to Dhaka and from there to Chittagong.

That brings up another issue. There should be a coastal passenger ferry service between Satkhira/Khulna area (Mongla) to Chittagong. I don't know why this has not yet been introduced. Not for want of demand I'm sure...

For that matter, there should be one connecting Chittagong and Kolkata as well (maybe via Mongla and Payra).