Jamuna Railway Bridge sees first trial run

Trial train operations have commenced on the country's largest railway bridge on the Jamuna River.

After a long wait, the first two trial trains successfully crossed the railway bridge at around 9:20am on Sunday (January 5). During this trial, the maximum speed of the trains was set at 20 kilometers per hour from the east bank to the west bank and from the west bank to the east bank. The speed was gradually increased to 80 kilometers per hour in the last test.

The trains will be run at full speed of 120 kilometers per hour on the bridge today.

Earlier, on November 26, a trial train ran over the railway bridge for the first time, reaching a maximum speed of 40 kilometers per hour.

Md. Mainul Islam, chief site engineer of the Jamuna Railway Bridge, confirmed this.

He said, "We are all eagerly awaiting the full-speed trial. Honestly, we are thrilled and excited. After years of hard work by our dedicated team, the project has been completed today. The train will now run at the highest speed in the country on this bridge. This is truly a milestone for us."

Al Fattah Md. Masudur Rahman, project director of the Jamuna Rail Bridge Project, said, "Once the two-day trial run is completed, the report will be submitted to the Ministry of Railways, which will make the final decision regarding the inauguration."

Construction of the bridge began in August 2020 at an initial cost of 9,734.7 crore taka, which later increased to 16,780.96 crore taka. Of this total, 12,149.2 crore taka was provided as a loan by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

The original project deadline was set from July 2016 to December 2023, but it was later extended to December 2024 in the first amendment. The project was approved by the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) on December 6, 2016.