The railway ministry has adopted an initiative to construct an 81-kilometre rail link, most of which will be elevated, between Dhaka’s Shyampur and Cumilla, said Prime Minister’s Adviser Zahed-ur-Rahman on Tuesday.

The railway could be fully elevated, or selected portions could be land-based, which would be decided by the government’s highest policymaking panel, the adviser said at a press briefing in the Secretariat.

Once implemented the project would reduce the rail journey between Dhaka and Chattogram by 80 kilometres and cut the journey duration by 1.5-2 hours, Zahed told reporters at the briefing.

The project cost has been initially estimated at Tk83,901 crore, but if parts of the rail tracks would be land based, the cost would fall by more than Tk20,000 crore.

After the acquisition of land, the project would take four years to complete, Zahed said, citing preliminary estimates presented at a railway ministry meeting on 5 October.

However, if the entire railway will be elevated, 322 acres of land could be preserved, he added.

In the design, the top speed would be 160-km per hour, and during operations, the speed would be 140-km per hour.

Electric trains would be operated in the future on the rail tracks, he noted.