Tuhin Shubhra Adhikary

The alignment of the proposed high-speed train between Dhaka and Chittagong is likely to be changed.

A bottleneck on the rail route between Dhaka and the country’s north-western and southern regions is unlikely to go away anytime soon as one of the two projects aimed at improving the track capacity are stuck in limbo due to delayed loan negotiations and a cost-cutting directive.

Two Chinese companies have expressed interest in forming a joint venture to construct, operate and manage funds for a proposed high-speed railway on the Dhaka-Chattogram route.

The two-lane Dhaka-Tangail-Rangpur highway that is being turned into a four-lane one has been selected for charging toll from those plying it.

South Korean Hyundai Rotem Company has supplied 10 locomotives to Bangladesh Railway deviating from some clauses of the contract, a probe committee has found.

The bottleneck in distribution of smart driving licences is likely to ease as a new vendor of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority starts the distribution process today.

Two new project proposals, including one on the operation and maintenance of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (HSIA), will be placed at a high-level meeting between representatives of Bangladesh and Japan today and there will be discussion whether those can be implemented under public private partnership (PPP).

In a rare move, the railways ministry yesterday changed the directors of 17 projects of Bangladesh Railway, aiming to facilitate their quick implementation.

Leaders of road transport associations yesterday demanded the government increase bus fares and give them financial benefits as their businesses were “hit hard by the pandemic”.

Ignoring its own probe committee’s recommendation to take punitive measures against 21 officials for purchase anomalies, the railways ministry has promoted one of them and started the process for another.

As road safety authority failed to achieve the target to halve the number of road accident fatalities by last year, it is now going to extend the deadline by another 10 years.

The Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, the biggest project of Bangladesh Railway, is facing several challenges that may have an adverse impact on its cost and duration, officials said.

The government is likely to start collecting tolls from vehicles using the country’s first expressway -- Dhaka-Mawa-Bhanga Expressway -- from July.

Despite repeated government directives on project officials to stay at project sites, road authorities continue to allow its officials to carry out their works from the RHD headquarters in the capital.

The government had approved the Khulna-Mongla Port Rail Line Project in December 2010 and the construction of the 64.75km rail line was supposed to be completed within three years.

The Prime Minister’s Office has given its consent to shifting the iconic Kamalapur Station Plaza further north, which would mean dismantling the structure and erecting a similar one in the new location.

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan has directed the authorities concerned to do further study on whether Keraniganj and the entire Purbachal area can be brought under the proposed circular rail network.

Mobile courts of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority have found different types of irregularities in 30 percent BRTC buses during a special drive this month.

The railways ministry has reconstituted a committee investigating a South Korean company for violating some clauses of the contract under which 10 locomotives have been supplied to the Bangladesh Railway.

Bangladesh Railway recently carried out a feasibility study to build a circular rail network in Dhaka -- a mega project that is expected to ease traffic congestion on city roads.