Sleeper Factory for Padma Bridge Rail Link Project starts production

A site visit program at the sleeper manufacturing factory of Padma Bridge Rail Link Project, the Mega Project in Bangladesh under construction of CREC, took place at the Bhanga Railway Station (Same location of CREC Track-laying Base) on December 02, 2020.
The site visit program was graced by the presence of Honorable Railway Minister Mr. Md. Nurul Islam Sujan, MP, Mr. Md. Salim Reza, Secretary, Ministry of Railways, Mr. Md Shamsuzzaman, Director, Bangladesh Railway, Mr. Fakhruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, Project Director, PBRLP and Mr. Wang Kun, Project Director, CREC were also present at the program along with others.

Padma Bridge Rail Link Project is located in the middle western part of Bangladesh. It will be the most important corridor for passenger and freight transportation between the east and the west of Bangladesh. The rail route starts from the existing Dhaka station, goes through Mawa, Padma Multi-purpose Bridge (under construction) and Bhanga, and ends in Jashore. The total length of the new line is approximately 168.8 km. PBRLP is also the biggest G2G infrastructure project in Bangladesh financed by the China Eximbank.

The sleeper factory serving for the PBRLP is built by CREC, the Contractor of PBRLP. The factory covers an area of 1.815 acres, with 104 sets of moulds, 16 stations, 6 steam curing pits and 2 sky cranes put into use. The sleeper factory adopts a fully enclosed steel structure and automatic assembly line operation. All the equipment is provided by CREC, and is tailored for Bangladesh railway construction, combining Asian and European standards, with an average daily capacity of more than 500 sleepers. The sleeper factory, which shoulders the considerable sleeper manufacture amount of 370,000 sleepers of PBRLP, is able to independently produce more than a dozen kinds of sleepers including 1,676 mm ballasted broad gauge (BG) sleeper, ballast-less broad gauge sleeper and dual gauge sleeper, which is currently used in Bangladesh. It is also the largest sleeper factory with the most advanced equipment, standardization and automation in Bangladesh.

The Honorable Minister of Railway expressed his appreciation to CREC as an internationally reputed contractor that has achieved remarkable and commendable progress during this pandemic period. He has praised CREC’s effort of maintaining all safety measures for the workers and continuing the work during this time. He has also expressed his gratitude to CREC for building this international standard sleeper manufacturing factory in Bangladesh.

Mr. Li Jiming, Ambassador of China in Bangladesh also wrote a letter of congratulations to CREC for this occasion.
As per Mr. Wang Kun, the Project Director of CREC for PBRLP, with the permission from Bangladesh Railway, CREC built this sleeper factory to decrease the uncertainty in international procurement, ensure availability of high-quality sleepers, maintain fast pace of sleeper making and supplying, reduce construction costs and import advanced and mature manufacturing technology from China. The sleeper factory is part of the sleeper-laying base. Mr. Wang Kun said the sleeper-laying base is currently employing around 200 local men who have undergone proper professional training by senior Chinese experts of CREC. On August 22nd, the sleeper factory started production on small scale. Upto now the factory has been functioning well and the finished products are of high quality.

Mr. Wang Kun took this chance to express his gratitude to Bangladesh Railway under Ministry of Railways, Construction Supervision Consultant under Bangladesh Army, Economic Relations Division under Finance Ministry, Chinese Embassy in Bangladesh and China Eximbank for their support in the completion of this factory and other milestone of PBRLP.

Asked about ways to keep the construction of this mega project uninterrupted during the pandemic period, Mr. Wang Kun replied that CREC has been taking strict anti-pandemic measures and giving top priority to the health and life safety of Bangladeshi and Chinese employees from the beginning of the pandemic. He said that CREC has established a regular safety training system, a close monitoring system, a daily disinfection system and a strict quarantine system which are supported with sufficient medical materials imported from China and experienced Chinese doctors working on site. Mr. Wang Kun said that CREC is able to carry out the construction of PBRLP on full scale while achieving effective epidemic prevention.

This article has been posted by a News Hour Correspondent. For queries, please contact through [email protected]
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