Rebuilding B’baria railway station cost govt nearly one crore

Brahmanbaria Railway Station, where train stoppage was suspended after vandalism and arson attacks by Hefazat-e-Islam activists in March this year, has resumed its services in full capacity following restoration work, that cost the government nearly one crore taka.

Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan re-launched the inter-city train stoppage at Brahmanbaria railway station on Saturday.

Since March 27, authorities suspended stopovers of all trains at the Brahmanbaria station, which is one of the key railway stations in the eastern region.

Around 1:26 pm on 13 November, Sylhet-bound Inter-city Jayantika Express made a stopover at the Brahmanbaria rail station marking the resumption of the station's services after nearly seven and a half months.  

Earlier in the day, at around 11:15, railway minister Nurul Islam had the service resumed by flagging the Jayantika Express train at Kamalapur railway station.

He also distributed flowers among the Brahmanbaria-bound passengers of the train.

"On 26 March this year, miscreants vandalised and torched the station - including the stationmaster's room, operating room, VIP room, chief booking assistant's room, ticket counter, signal equipment with panel board, level crossing gate with point box and other installations," said Nurul Islam Sujan.

The minister also said that the Hefazat-e-Islam vandalism incident caused a loss worth Tk2.5 crore to the Bangladesh Railway and it took the government 1 crore taka to rebuild and refurbish the station.

"From today, the passengers will get to enjoy train stoppage service at Brahmanbaria railway station like it was before the incident," he added.

The minister at the time vowed to take legal action against those involved in the incident.

Railways Secretary Md Selim Reza, Director General of Bangladesh Railway Dhirendranath Majumder and other senior officials were present on the occasion.