Bangladesh Railway is set to open on Tuesday two new routes through the Padma Bridge with one linking the capital to southwestern Khulna and another to western Benapole land border via Jashore.
Railway officials said they named the two trains to run on the new tracks as Jahanabad Express and Ruposhi Bangla Express.
“The Jahanabad Express will leave Khulna at 6 am and reach Kamalapur at 9:45 am while the Ruposhi Bangla will leave Kamalapur at 10:45 am and reach Benapole at 2:30 pm passing through Jashore,” railway’s director general Mohammad Afzal Hossain told.
He said in their reverse journeys Ruposhi Bangla Express will leave Benapole station at 3:30pm and reach Kamalapur at 7pm while the Jahanabad Express will leave Kamalapur station at 8 pm and reach Khulna at 11.30 pm on the same day.
Khulna was previously connected with Dhaka through Bangabandhu Bridge while the journey time was nearly 10 hours while the journey time between Dhaka and Jashore in train through the same bridge would take over 8 hours.
The newly constructed railway route nearly halved the journey time in both the routes.
Railway officials said the newly constructed 172-km broad-gauge single-line railway track connected the existing Khulna bound train line via Singia stations.
Hossain said the government has constructed the 172-km new railway track having provision to upgrade it into double from Kamalapur to Rupdia towards Jashore and Singia station towards Khulna at a cost of Taka 37,155 crore.
He said Jahanabad Express will stop stop at Nowapara, Singia, Lohagara, Kashiani and Bhanga junctions while the Ruposhi Bangla would stop Narail, Kashiani and Bhanga junctions.
Both trains have 12 coaches or compartments’ each with a capacity to accommodate 768 passengers while they will operate everyday accept Monday as its holiday.