New locos, new lines
BANGLADESH Railways (BR) has modernised its loco fleet in the last three years with EMD design metre gauge and broad gauge locos, both using the EMD 710 engine design, delivered from manufacturers in South Korea and the USA.
The BR network is a mixture of both broad 1676mm (5ft
6in) gauge and metre gauge track, although in recent years the once larger metre gauge part of the network has been partly converted to dual metre and broad gauge. BR is also building new lines with plans for a 126.25km line connecting Darshana on the border with India and the country’s third largest city Khulna announced in late 2022.
American firm Progress Rail, which owns the former EMD business, is delivering 40 new type GT42AC six axle broad gauge locos to BR as Class 6600 in 2021/22. Similar locos have been sold to other railways in Asia and South America. In addition, 100 model GT38ACL, metre gauge, 100kph mixed traffic locos have been ordered, in several batches, from
Hyundai Rotem funded by the South Korean government’s development aid budget.
The locos, designated Class 3000 by BR, were built at Hyundai Rotem’s Changwon factory and the first 10 were delivered from 2020, with the next batch of 20 delivered in 2021/22. Hyundai Rotem had previously built EMD GT18 design A1A A1A locos for BR; 39 of these were delivered 1999 to 2013 numbered as Class 2900.
The arrival of the new locos has relegated most of the remaining Alco-engined locos on both gauges to freight, or they have been stored. Rather amazingly a small number of the 1953 vintage EMD built type B12 metre gauge locos remain in use mainly for freight or engineering trains.