DEMU Commuter Train - First-Ever in Bangladesh

Bangladesh's first-ever commuter train whistled and ran its trial journey on Chittagong-Fouzdarhat Route on Saturday, May 18th Morning.

Assistant Director of Public Relations of Bangladesh Railway, east zone, Mizanur Rahman told the news agency that the DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Units) train left Pahartali Railway Station of the city around 10:00am. It returned the same station at 12:50pm Saturday after completing trial’, he said adding that it was the first time that DEMU is running on the tracks of Bangladesh.

The DEMU train will be starting its permanent journey from on Chittagong route from May 25 next, railway sources said. He also said similar trains will be in service in other parts of the country, if it turns out to be successful.

This image is taken from clickittefaq.com

Mizanur said that this DEMU service is aimed at ensuring comfortable quick journey in short distances easing pressure on roads. A diesel electric multiple unit or DEMU is a multiple unit train consisting of multiple carriages powered by one or more on-board diesel engines.

Each DEMU train, having three coaches, can make six trips a day within 20 to 30 km distance like Chittagong-Fouzdarhat route, Mizan said.

Each DEMU can carry 300 passengers at a time which can run at a speed of 60 kilometre per hour.
In the first phase, two sets of DEMU commuter trains will start their journey on Dhaka to Narayanganj route and on many other routes of Chittagong, railway sources said. From Dhaka to Narayanganj, it takes nearly two hours by bus, whereas a trip on a DEMU train will take only 20-25 minutes.

Any distance below 33 kilometres will be considered the lowest distance and the Dhaka-Narayanganj route measures 16.1 kilometres. The fare for the lowest distance was Tk 10 for the local trains. As the DEMUs are commuter trains, their lowest distance fare is Tk 15.

The two DEMU sets are the first of 20 that are being imported. China’s Tangshan Railway Vehicle Company Limited (formerly known as Tangshan Locomotive and Rolling Stock Works) won the bid for supplying the trains. They are supplying these under a $58.31 million deal. Each DEMU train, which costs Tk 20 crore, would provide comfortable space for 300 passengers — 149 seating and 151 standing passengers.

BR director (traffic) Zahirul Islam told that there was also seating arrangement in the two-engine coaches. He also confirmed that the gap between the platform and a DEMU train’s footstep is 2.5 feet to 3 feet. Some railway officials expressed concern that it would be a bit tougher for women, children and elderly people to get on these trains because of this gap.

The railway minister, Mohammad Mazibul Hoque, told that if the passengers would face any problems in using this new train, the authorities would take initiatives to address the problem gradually. ‘We would also appoint one representative from Railway Nirapatta Bahini and the Government Railway Police forces when this train will run,’ he said. Commuter train services will gradually be introduced on Chittagong-Feni, Chittagong-Nazirhat and Chittagong- Dohazari routes, Dinajpur-Parbatipur-Rangpur and Lalmonirhat-Parbatipur-Saidpur routes, the source added.

Bangladesh Railway is also importing five DEMU sets from a single Indian source - the state-owned Integral Coach Factory (ICF) situated in Chennai - under the latter's US$1.0 billion credit package. Each of them will consist of six coaches. India will start supplying them towards the end of this year, said railway officials.

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