Local engineers turned useless DEMU trains operational

Bangladesh Railway imported 20 sets of computer controlled Diesel Electric Multiple Units or DEMU trains made by Tanshang International and Danial Technical Research Institute of China in 2013 at a cost of 6.5 crore taka. Despite the duration of 35 years, 16 of the 149 passenger DEMU trains became inactive in seven years. After years of keeping them in the 'ICU' (Intensive Care Centre) they could not be mobilized despite various attempts. However, at the end of last month, after removing China's hidden technology, the country's engineers started 5 demo trains at Parbatipur diesel workshop in Dinajpur using their own technology. As a result, the useless trains are coming operational again. According to sources, the special software used to run the computer controlled DEMU trains were never handed over to Bangladesh by the supplier. If its module failed, software setup with new module would have been required. We needed to hang with Chinese engineers for this. A DEMU contains 40 modules. One of which costs about 7 lakhs. Since Chinese engineers did not transfer the technology, trains one after another became useless. And it was quite expensive to get these DEMUs operational by them. Eventually, when the trains appeared as useless in 2020, Bangladesh Railways took up the challenge to make them operational. Additional Director General Md. Manzoor Ul Alam Chowdhury with the cooperation of local engineers took initiative to develop local technology in repairing these DEMU trains. Md. Asaduzzaman, a former student of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) and former officer of Nuclear Energy Commission's cooperation was sought in this regard. Asaduzzaman already started research on DEMU. He chose a room of Syedpur Railway Officers Club as his laboratory. In a 72-day effort, he invented the technology to run a DEMU like a conventional bus or a truck. He removed expensive modules. In that case only 2 controllers were installed. And the trains at last started moving. Bangladesh Railway has been able to operate 5 sets of DEMUs one after the other. Two engines on both sides and a coach in the middle. Then the trial run was completed by gradually increasing the load. Thus, each of the 8 trial runs was successful. From Parbatipur to Lalmonirhat, the newly launched DEMU moved continuously. A trial run of the passenger DEMU with the officials. Manzoor-ul-Alam Chowdhury, Additional Director General (RS) of Railways, who was the main sponsor behind the running of the stalled DEMUs, said that the task was far-fetched and challenging for them. They never thought these DEMUs could be made operational for passenger transport again. But our engineers have shown breakthroughs in repairing useless DEMUs.  A maximum of taka 50 lakhs were spent on repairing aDEMU train, which would have cost several times more if imported. Skilled manpower has already been created to conduct experiments on this. They can now also facilitate subsequent repair works. It may be noted that, DEMU trains used to ply on between Dhaka-Tongi, Dhaka-Joydebpur, Joydevpur-Mymensingh, Sylhet-Akhaura, Chittagong-Cumilla, Noakhali-Laksam, Laksham-Chandpur, Chittagong-Nazirhat, Parbatipur-Lalmonirhat, Parbatipur-Panchgarh routes. The trains were originally purchased for running short distances of 20 km around Dhaka and Chittagong cities. But on other routes the distance was more than four times, due to which the trains could not last long.