The railways ministry has sought an allocation of more than Tk 148 billion under the medium term budget framework for the financial year (FY) 2025-26 against its 32 ongoing development projects, sources said.

Md Fahimul Islam, secretary of the ministry, has requested Md Khairuzzaman Mozumder, secretary of the finance division, to take necessary steps in the regard.

The resource ceiling of the railways ministry is increasing every year as a priority sector.

The ministry has set a ceiling of Tk 124.37 billion under the development budget for the next fiscal year.

It is noted that an additional amount of Tk 20.78 billion will be required for resettlement and project implementation and practical work purposes in the FY.

Besides, over Tk 1.68 billion will be needed in the railway establishment (CD VAT and IT), Tk 837.3 million in the bridge work sector and Tk 210.5 million in the rolling stock procurement sector.

For this, an additional amount of Tk 23.51 billion will be required over the ceiling set in the GOB sector.

According to a railways official, the higher budget allocation was sought for some mega projects like Cox’s-Dohazari rail track development projects, the largest inland container depot (ICD) at Gazipur’s Dhirasram, 200 broad-gauge passenger carriages collection, third and the fourth dual-gauge line in Dhaka-Tongi section and dual-gauge double lines in Dhaka-Joydevpur section.