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Jamuna Railway Bridge
Longest Railway bridge in Bangladesh From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Jamuna Railway Bridge[1] is a dual-gauge, double-track railway bridge on Jamuna River in Bangladesh. This bridge connects Sirajganj and Tangail by railway network.[2] This bridge is the longest solo railway bridge in Bangladesh. As of October 2020, 44 trains per day pass through the existing Jamuna Bridge. As the bridge does not allow trains to run at full speed with the speed limit set to 20km/h and being a single-track railway takes longer to cross the bridge, trains are prone to schedule disruptions. Also, heavy goods trains cannot run on the bridge due to weight restrictions. At the Jamuna Railway Bridge, the average time to reach the destination of the trains running between the capital Dhaka and the northern and western regions of the country is reduced by 2 hours. Besides, the facility of transporting goods by rail from neighboring countries is increase. Apart from this, this bridge is also useful for easy transportation of passengers and goods on internal routes. Apart from this, the bridge is an important link between SAARC, BIMSTEC, SASEC, and other regional and sub-regional railway routes and trans-Asian railway network. After the bridge is built, the railway tracks of the Jamuna Bridge is removed.[3]
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Project details
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Perspective
First, on 6 December 2016, the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) approved the construction project of the bridge.[4] For this, the Bangladesh government undertook the project at a cost of Tk 9,734 crore, of which Japan's development cooperation organization Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will provide Tk 7,724 crore. The project is scheduled to be implemented by December 2023.[citation needed]
However, in the next revised project, the deadline has been extended by two years to December 2025. At the same time, the project cost has been increased from Tk 9,734 crore to Tk 16,781 crore. JICA will provide loan assistance of 72% of the construction cost. Bangladesh Railway will implement the project. This project has been carried out by the Obayashi-Toa-JFE (OTJ) Joint Venture and IHI-SMCC Joint Venture for the eastern and western parts, respectively. Additionally, the project involves constructing a 7.6 km double-line railway approach embankment, 30.73 km of dual-gauge track, 16 viaducts, and renovating the East and West stations and yards of Jamuna Bridge. After completion, the bridge will increase the number of trains that can pass between the capital and the northwest by 88, significantly improving rail connectivity in the region. This bridge can accommodate broad-gauge trains traveling at 120km/h and meter-gauge trains moving at 100km/h.[citation needed]
Jamuna Rail Bridge is the largest and most vivid example of weathering steel (paintless steel) in Bangladesh. Use of this steel eliminates the need of any painting for corrosion protection. The seven year long atmospheric test was conducted by A F M Saiful Amin from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology through a joint project with JFe steel corporation Japan as a mark of solidarity and bilateral technology transfer between Japan and Bangladesh.
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Progress
The construction of the bridge has been fully completed in November 2024. A test run was initiated on 26 November, that completed the following day. The Jamuna Railway Bridge began trial operations on February 12, 2025, with passenger trains starting to cross the bridge. Initially, trains operated on a single track. The bridge was officially inaugurated on March 18, 2025, marking the start of full operations with both tracks in use. [5][6]
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References
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