Several major railway projects under Bangladesh Railway have already been completed. Additionally, the current caretaker government has slowed down the progress of ongoing large projects and is canceling some of them. As a result, the proposed budget allocation for railways in the fiscal year 2025-26 has been reduced by nearly half.
On Monday, June 2, 2025, Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed, the economic advisor to the caretaker government, presented the proposed budget of 7.9 trillion taka to the parliament.
Analysis of the budget shows that the allocation for the railways in the 2024-25 fiscal year was 1,372.56 billion taka, which has been proposed to decrease to 771.50 billion taka for the upcoming fiscal year.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Railways had a separate allocation of about 62.5 billion taka in the current fiscal year, which has been reduced to 17.98 billion taka in the proposed budget.
Fauzul Kabir Khan, advisor to the Ministry of Railways, stated, “We have canceled many unnecessary projects. Without trains, having rail lines alone is meaningless. Therefore, these projects are temporarily halted. Instead of infrastructure projects, we will focus on a new project aimed at improving the quality of train services.”
This move is seen as a strategic step by the government to ensure more effective and efficient use of funds in the railway sector.
