Railway's optical fibre line to be extended

The government is going to set up fibre optic telecommunication system on an additional stretch of 575-kilometres remote railway track to provide better services and earn more revenue from telecom operators.

The Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) yesterday approved a project for setting up and introducing additional optical fibre-based telecom system in the railway secondary line at a cost of Tk 69 crore.

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According to a planning ministry proposal, the railway telecommunication system is mostly based on copper cable. As a result, owing to various limitations, the railway is not capable of delivering proper services to its passengers.

If the communication is brought under optical net, services will improve and the railway will also earn revenue by renting it to telecom operators, the proposal says.

Besides, customers will also get better mobile network and internet service.

ill also get better mobile network and internet service.

Earlier in 1992, about 1,600 kilometres of composite cable was set up on the rail route, including optical fibre and copper cable, with grants from the Norwegian government.

Grameenphone (GP) was leased additional optical fibre facility in 1997 through international bidding for which the telecom operator pays the railway every year.

Another 409-kilometres optical fibre has been set up by the railway and GP and is being commercially used by the mobile phone company.

Besides, 400-kilometres of additional optical fibre have been set up by the railway and the issue of leasing the additional facility to various telecom operators is now under consideration.

Meanwhile, setting up of fresh 569-kilometres of optical fibre is now underway and it would be implemented through different development projects.

After the Ecnec meeting, Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal told journalists that the prime minister directed them to ensure collection of rent from the leased optical fibre.

The minister was asked yesterday to clearly find out whether the revenue collected from the network was being used now and the amount of it.

Besides, Ecnec yesterday approved eight other projects involving Tk 7,539 crore, including development of physical infrastructure at Gazipur City Corporation (GCC) at a cost of Tk 661 crore and Tk 1,380 crore for development of non-municipal upazilas.

For development of non-municipal upazilas, Tk 1,380 crore would be spent in 188 such upazilas across the country by 2022. The amount would be used under a well-prepared master plan that includes construction and renovation of 560km roads, 915 bridges and culverts, 274km drain and 183 kitchen markets, 183 slaughterhouses and 549 public toilets.

In GCC areas, new roads would be built and existing ones would be widened to reduce traffic jam. Besides, 122km drains would be built to remove waterlogging.

The Ecnec yesterday approved another project under which 45 various water vessels, including 35 for commercial purpose, would be procured for BIWTC at a cost of Tk 1,320 crore.

Other projects approved yesterday are building housing facility for cleaners of Chittagong City Corporation at a cost of Tk 231 crore, project for increasing tolerance of destitute people through improving infrastructural efficiency and providing information in 25 upazilas in Rangpur and Mymensingh at a cost of Tk 758 crore and installation of five lakh smart pre-paid meters in the areas under Northern Electricity Supply Co Ltd at a cost of Tk 415 crore.

The Ecnec also approved a project involving Tk 2,511 crore for improving science education at 200 government colleges. In each of the colleges, a six-storey building will be constructed under which classrooms, IT labs cum language rooms, multipurpose halls and science labs would be set up.