Local engineers save millions by converting DEMU trains

When the government bought 20 diesel-electric multiple-unit trains in 2013 from China to facilitate short-distance rail travel, Bangladeshis lauded the idea as these specialised trains were expected to bring down the cost of commuting and ease the pressure on roads.

Fast forward to 2022, the same idea is seen as one of the most controversial projects the rail authorities have ever taken up, as it failed to serve its purpose.

Even though the Chinese manufacturer projected the lifespan of the DEMU trains to be around 20 years, most of the trains have reportedly become inoperative due to a lack of maintenance and spare parts within six or seven.

Now, two and a half years later, a new initiative by the railway has repaired six of the trains. This initiative may prove a cost-effective way to restore these trains to regular service.

Additional Director General (Rolling Stock) of Bangladesh Railways Manjur-ul-Alam Chowdhury blamed the manufacturers for their unwillingness to transfer maintenance knowledge during the heyday of the service for the disrepair of the trains.

“The Chinese engineers were reluctant to share their knowledge of how to maintain the mechanics and upgrade the software which actually operates the trains electronically,” he said.

As a result, he said the mechanics, electronics and software of the trains remained unfamiliar to railway engineers. The engines were also different from the other trains procured by the railway.

The workshops needed to be set up to properly maintain the vehicles, but the initiative was not taken.

When Bangladesh Railways approached the manufacturer CRRC Tangshan Co International years ago, they sent a rather large quote, which was not economically viable for the railways at the time.

“Each DEMU train had 30 to 35 modules. Most of them were not available on the market. Even if we managed to buy a few, no one in Bangladesh had the proper training to install them. As the technology was new, it was also difficult for the engineers in Bangladesh to understand on their own,” Alam said.

They say necessity is the mother of invention. A sector commonly known for its endless loop of irregularities and corruption decided to take it upon itself to make these trains operable again.

With the help of Asaduzzaman, a former engineer for Bangladesh Railway, the state-run corporation was able to fix six of these trains again.

After the repairs were completed, two of the trains began operating in Dhaka, and three others in Chattogram.

The sixth recently had a successful trial run recently from Dinajpur’s Parbabtipur to Lalmonirhat with 700 passengers on board.

HOW WERE THE TRAINS FIXED?

Simply put, by converting the mechanics and electronics entirely.

Manjur-ul-Alam was put in charge of coming up with ideas on how to make these operable again a couple of years ago.

“The credit goes to a former official of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Engineer Asaduzzaman, who came up with the technology of how to convert them entirely so that these trains could be maintained in a railway workshop,” he said.

Asaduzzaman, according to Manjur-ul-Alam, worked for around 22 months to convert six DEMU trains to their current form.

“Asaduzzaman and his team didn’t change much on the engine side, but completely changed the electronics and software sides to match our existing maintenance capacity,” he said.

The engineer believes with the current technology, the trains will be able to run at least for the next few years at 65 km per hour speed. He said it took around Tk 30 million to fix six trains.

“If we get the government’s green light, I am confident that my team and I will be able to convert the rest of the trains with Tk 2 million to Tk 8 million budget for each train within two months,” he said.

Asaduzzaman, who graduated from BUET, said: “Each country has its own standards for technology. Though the standards for technology may be similar in different countries, prices and quality may differ.”

“The quality of the trains brought in from China was not too bad. However, we were unable to run them for very long and the reason is, there are few people in our railway who are skilled with electronics and electrical matters.”

As long as the Chinese companies oversaw their maintenance, the trains ran properly, he said. However, when the maintenance duties were handed over to the local engineers, they fell into disrepair because they were unfamiliar with the proper procedures.

The newly renovated trains will not have the same problem, the engineer said.

“The new equipment we installed is the same as on our other trains, so we hope we will not face the same difficulties again,” he said.

“After these repairs, we believe they can run for another 40 years, easily. If additional repairs are needed in the future, we hope they can be conducted with ease and at low cost.”

The railway authorities said the converted DEMU trains will soon be launched on the Dinajpur route and on the Chattogram-Cumilla route. However, their passenger capacity has been reduced after the repairs. Each train will now accommodate 1,000 passengers at a time.

The DEMU trains previously ran on the Dhaka-Cumilla, Akhaura-Sylhet, Lalmonirhat-Parbatipur, Laksham-Chattogram, Laksham-Chandpur, Dhaka-Gazipur, Dhaka-Narayanganj, and Dinajpur-Panchagarh lines.