Indian Railways to provide training, IT solutions to Bangladesh Railway

The Indian Railways (IR) will provide training to the employees of the Bangladesh Railway (BR) as well as offer IT solutions for the computerisation of its passenger ticketing and freight operations.

Total two MoUs were inked between Bangladesh and Indian on Tuesday, during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ongoing visit to New Delhi, reports Kolkata-based English daily The Telegraph.

One memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the Ministry of Railways (Railway Board), Government of India and the Ministry of Railways, Government of Bangladesh on training BR personnel in India envisages a framework of cooperation and to facilitate the training at the institutes of the IR.

"This will include conducting seminars, workshops, classroom and field training. The IR will also coordinate with officials in the neighbouring country as required, including for visiting and assisting in setting up and improving training facilities in Bangladesh and study requirements," officials said.

The other MoU is on "Collaboration in IT systems such as FOIS and other IT applications for Bangladesh Railway".

This will include information technology solutions for all aspects of the Bangladesh Railway -- computerisation of passenger ticketing, freight operation and control office, train inquiry system, digitisation of asset management, human resource and finance infrastructure -- through the Centre for Railway Information Systems (CRIS).

The two neighbouring countries also inaugurated the 5.13km Rupsha rail bridge, which is a key part of the 64.7km Khulna-Mongla Port single-track broad gauge rail project, connecting Mongla Port with Khulna by rail for the first time, and thereafter, to central and north Bangladesh and also to the country's border with India at Petrapole and Gede in West Bengal (WB).

The Khulna-Darshana railway line link project was also announced to upgrade the existing (doubling of broad gauge) infrastructure, linking the current cross-border rail link at Gede-Darshana to Khulna and thereby augmenting the rail connections between the two countries, especially to Dhaka, but also in future, to Mongla Port.

The project cost is estimated to be $312.48 million.

Another project, the Parbatipur-Kaunia railway line, will see the conversion of the existing metre-gauge line to dual-gauge line at an estimated cost of $120.41 million.

The project will connect to the existing cross-border rail at Birol (Bangladesh)-Radhikapur (West Bengal) and enhance bilateral rail connectivity.