ER holds meeting with reps of World Bank

Kolkata: The Eastern Railway (ER) proposed establishment of goods sheds in areas prone to waterlogging and enhancing market efforts at strategic locations in Bangladesh Railway during a meeting with the World Bank representation on their initiative for regional Rail integration.

The World Bank representatives addressed the challenges and opportunities for enhancing rail connectivity with Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Bhutan. Presently, ER maintains connections with Bangladesh through Petrapole-Benapole and Gede-Darshana, while Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) oversees Singhabad-Rohanpur, Radhikapur-Birol and Haldibari-Chilahati routes. Challenges discussed included limited capacity, gauge incompatibility, non-electrification and operational constraints at major goods sheds.

Eastern Railway’s General Manager Milind K Deouskar proposed suggestions for improvement, establishment of goods sheds in areas prone to waterlogging, implementing 24x7 working hours at major goods sheds, exploring multi-modal transport operations and enhancing market efforts at strategic locations in Bangladesh Railway were deliberated upon.

He also stated that the Indian Railways can increase the connectivity with Bangladesh more than its existing capacity but Bangladesh Railways have no such infrastructure to accept the connectivity. The meeting was also attended by Sumit Sarkar, Additional General Manager of Eastern Railway, Md. Jamshed, Senior Adviser of World Bank (South Asia) and principal heads of departments from Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway.