While there is serious concern over loss to the state coffers in running DEMU trains, the Bangladesh Railway has moved to repair 20 out-of-order trains to run them again by December next year.
The government procured the Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) trains with an estimated cost of BDT600 crore in 2013 from China’s Tangshan Railway Vehicle Co. Ltd. After running them for seven years, all of them became out of order, and now the railway authorities are making a rushed attempt to repair them.
Some officials have expressed their concern over the procurement of the DEMU trains that became out of order within a few years while they say locomotives the railway bought from the US in 1953 are still operative. Also, the coaches that were bought from Germany in the 1980s are still being used to carry passengers.
Read: Crocked DEMU train from China repaired using home-spun genius
According to the Bangladesh Railway sources, now two to three sets of DEMU trains will be repaired by January 2023, five others will be made operational by June 2023 while the rest of the trains will be repaired by December, 2023.
Officials say the repairs have become necessary as the mechanical and electrical parts of the DEMU trains have become dysfunctional due to ‘schedule overdue’ as they have been lying unrepaired for a long period.
According to the short-term plan, the DEMU trains, which are in good condition and need minimal fixing will be made operational first. Module-based operating systems of these trains will be replaced by easily available parts and machinery in the market, they say.
Those DEMU trains that would need more repair work will be included in the medium-term plan.
And the trains that need heavy repairing will be part of the long-term plan.
Although it has been six years since rail tracks for DEMU trains were laid down, engines of most of trains have become dysfunctional due to a lack of heavy scheduling. DEMU operation was suspended because of loud noise of the engines, emission of huge amount of black smoke, load problems and the overheating of the engines.
As there was no separate workshop for repairing the DEMU trains, steps had been taken to use the existing diesel workshops for servicing in 2018.
Read: Bangladesh Railway: Massive overhaul schemes in the offing
Each of the DEMU trains has two motor cars and one trailer car. These trains have engines on both sides.
The first DEMU trains were operated in various routes under Dhaka, Chattogram and Lalmonirhat railway divisions.
Bangladesh Railway has incurred over Tk 15,555 crore in losses in 13 years between FY2008-09 and FY2019-20.
In FY2020-21, an interim report said the state-run agency posted a loss of Tk 1,384cr.