Kamran Reza Chowdhury bdnews24.com senior correspondent
Dhaka, March 16 (bdnews24.com)The prime minister will ask for Beijing's support during her upcoming tour to build rail links to help connect Dhaka with Kunming in China via Myanmar.
During the visit, starting on Wednesday, prime minister Sheikh Hasina will ask her Chinese counterpart to allocate funds to lay rail lines to link Dhaka to resort town Cox's Bazar, through Chittagong, and from Cox's Bazar up to the Myanmar border.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni on March 14 told journalists that Hasina will discuss with Chinese leaders ways to connect Bangladesh with Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, via Myanmar, by both rail and road.
Communications minister Syed Abul Hossain on Tuesday also told bdnews24.com that his ministry had mapped out a two-part rail project at an estimated cost of $210 million.
The two-part project would consist of Construction of Single Line Metre Gauge Railway Track from Dohazari, in Chittagong district, to Cox's Bazar via Ramu and Ramu to Gundum near Myanmar Border.
"These are two priority projects. The prime minister will seek Chinese assistance to implement them," Hossain had said.
Railway officials say Bangladesh Railway has taken up a project for the rehabilitation of a 47-kilometre track from Chittagong city to Dohazari.
"Construction of 100 kilometres of track from Dohazari to Cox's Bazar will then directly connect Dhaka with the popular seaside destination," TA Chowdhury, an additional director general of the railway, told bdnews24.com on Tuesday.
He said Canarail, a railway engineering consulting firm, carried out a study in 2001 on a Dohazari to Cox's Bazar rail track and found the project feasible.
"It can be implemented in three years, if necessary funds are mobilised," he said.
Chowdhury said the proposed 28-kilometre Ramu-Gundum rail route will pave the way for Bangladesh's connectivity with China.
Ramu will be a junction along Dohazari-Cox's Bazar route, from which the rail track will run up to Gundum on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border.
Foreign ministry sources say there is no rail or road network up to mountainous Gundum inside Myanmar.
In 1999, Chinese authorities organised a workshop on connectivity of landlocked Kunming close to the China-Myanmar border.
Around 200 experts from China, India, Bangladesh and Myanmar participated in the workshop dubbed the Kunming Initiative.
It adopted seven recommendations to accelerate development and economic cooperation in the region including with the northeastern states of India.
The recommendations included connecting the region by rail, road and air to boost economic cooperation among the member states.
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