Bangladesh mulls importing train coaches from ICF

Bangladesh Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan on Thursday visited the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) here and said his country would explore the possibility of importing train coaches from the facility.

Sujan, accompanied by Bangladesh Railways Additional Director General (Operations) Sardar Shahadat Ali, on a brief visit, inspected the special coaches made by ICF, including the Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) Vistadome coaches, LHB AC tier II and III coaches among others.

During his interaction with ICF General Manager A K Agarwal, Sujan said Bangladesh has taken up the project of converting its metre gauge tracks to broad gauge and the LHB coaches from ICF would be of great help in modernising Bangladesh Railways.

He said Bangladesh Railways would explore the possibility of importing train sets for mass commutation such as DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) similar to the ones exported to Sri Lanka and Nepal by ICF recently, a press release said.

A team of officials from Bangladesh Railways would soon visit ICF to further the process of export of coaches from ICF, the release said.

Sujan said the ICF played a vital role in the development of railways in Bangladesh and the ties between the railways of two countries has a 'long history'. He recalled the sacrifices of the Indian soldiers in getting freedom for Bangladesh and the neighbouring country would maintain the relationship forever.

The Minister was also impressed by the Vande Bharat coaches and other coaches manufactured by the ICF, the release said.