The government has to spend more than 40,000 crore to bring Payra Sea Port in Patuakhali and Barishal under the rail network, a study says.

The construction of 214.91 kilometre rail line from Faridpur's Bhanga to Payra port, the country's third sea port, via Barishal would cost Tk 40,701.22 crore, according to a feasibility study conducted by Bangladesh Railway.

However, the project cost would be Tk 44,497.60 crore if the authority wants to build 25km elevated line on the route where the land lies very low. To construct the elevated line, the embankments would have to be built at a high height.

All the information came to light as the project officials and consultants made an elaborate presentation on the scheme at a meeting on Monday, with Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan in the chair.

With six districts, Barishal division is the country's lone division without having any railway connectivity.

As a part of the government's plan to bring the entire country under the rail network and establish a direct link between the under-construction Payra Sea Port and the capital, it intended to construct rail line from Bhanga to Payra.

Bhanga has already been connected with railway network from Faridpur and it would be directly linked with Dhaka once the ongoing Parma Bridge Rail Link Project, under which a rail line from Dhaka to Jashore is being constructed, is completed by June 2024.

The government had taken up a project in 2016 to carry out a feasibility study with detailed design and preparing the tender document at a cost of Tk 43 crore.

Although the project was supposed to be completed within June 2018, the BR was only able to sign an agreement with a joint venture company of Dowha of South Korea, TYPSA of Spain and DDC of Bangladesh in July that year.

The deadline for the project was later extended to June this year.

WHAT THE STUDY SAYS?

After the completion of the final detailed design, the project authority made a presentation before the railways minister in March this year. The minister had given some suggestions at that time.

Pointing out some locations on the elevated part of the rail route where the height of embankments would be very high, the minister said less land would be required for the project and flow of water would not be obstructed if the elevated line was built at those points.

The minister also advised the consultants to review their project design within the limit of the estimated cost in the context of building elevated line at those locations, meeting sources said.

As per the study, the broad gauge single line will have 20 stations and more than 40 bridges. A modern computer based interlocking signaling system will be installed at all stations.

Speaking to The Daily Star, a top railway official said since a part of the line would be elevated, the cost of the project would be more than Tk 40,701 crore. However, everything would be finalised during the approval of the project, he added, wishing not to be named.

The consultant mentioned the project as an "economically viable" one and highly desirable investment scheme, according to sources at BR.

The authorities could not determine whether the project would be implemented as an investment project or under a public private partnership initiative, the sources said.

"The funding source for the project has not been finalised yet," a top BR official told this newspaper yesterday.