The Dhaka–Chittagong high-speed railway was a proposed high-speed rail line connecting Dhaka, the capital and largest city, with the southeast harbour city of Chittagong. The project was estimated to cost ৳96,752 crore (US$11.4 billion).[1]
The travel time between Dhaka and Chittagong would be 73 minutes for trains stopping at intermediate stations, and 55 minutes for nonstop trains. The ticket cost for one-way journey will be ৳2,000 without any discount or concession, more than three times higher than a conventional seat on current inter-city trains.[1]
History
On May 31, 2018, Bangladesh Railway signed an agreement with the China Railway Design Corporation and Mazumder Enterprise.[2] This contract is designed to verify the design and feasibility of proposed high-speed train lines. According to this agreement, feasibility and design work will be completed in December 2019 at a cost of Tk102.10 crore.[1][3] The government of Bangladesh is bearing this cost.[1][4]
It is expected to reduce travel time to between 55 and 73 minutes between Dhaka and Chittagong while current inter-city trains has to spend around six hours of travel time are needed to cover the distance by the current 321 km (199 mi) metre-gauge railways. The new route will be 227.3 km (141.2 mi), making the route 90 kilometres (55 mi) shorter.[a] 464.2 hectares (4.642 km2) of land will be needed to be acquired by Bangladesh Railway to implement the project.[1]
