C T Online Desk: The Lohagara Railway Station, located in the bordering area between Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar, is one of the nine stations built under the Chattogram–Cox’s Bazar rail link project, which was implemented at a cost of Tk 11,336 crore.
The station was expected to serve as a gateway for residents of both Lohagara and Chakaria upazilas to commute between Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar regularly.
However, the station has so far been failing to meet the basic needs of local passengers.
Commuters said that only one of the two trains on the route stops at the station daily, that too with a limited number of seats available for passengers boarding at Lohagara, which is not enough to meet the growing demand. The station also lacks necessary infrastructure for serving the passengers.
Moreover, the connecting road leading to the station is in a sorry state, with worn-off paving, numerous potholes and muddy surface making it largely impassable, especially for the elderly and those without private vehicles. Public transports are scare on the road due to its dilapidated condition.
During a recent visit to the station, this correspondent observed that a waiting room built for passengers lacks any furniture for them to sit on, while the toilet has no water supply.
“The station is located nearly nine kilometres from Lohagara Sadar union. Those of us living in Sadar area have to spend at least Tk 80-100 and switch between multiple vehicles just to reach the station. As such, the hassle of getting there outweighs the comfort of rain journey between Chattogram and Cox’s Bazar,” said Alauddin, a local resident.
Mohammed Lokman, acting stationmaster of Lohagara station, said, “No booking assistant has yet been appointed, thereby compelling passengers to purchase all tickets online.”
The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) had begun work on a three-kilometre road to connect between Chunati and Adhunagar on the Chattogram–Cox’s Bazar highway, near the Lohagara station.
However, the work order was recently cancelled following allegations of irregularities against the contractor.
“We cancelled the work order after receiving complaints about irregularities. A fresh tender for the road work will be called soon,” said Muhammad Ifrad Bin Munir, upazila engineer of LGED in Lohagara.
He also said the higher authorities were verbally informed about the need for a dedicated access road to the railway station, but no response has been received so far.
Currently, two intercity trains — Shaibal and Probal —operate on the Chattogram- Cox’s Bazar route. However, only Probal stops at Lohagara station, with just 32 seats allocated for passengers from this station — far below the actual demand.
“If the Shaibal train also made a stop here, the number of passengers using the station would increase significantly, especially since it runs during office hours,” said Mohammad Emran Hossain, a regular commuter on the route.
“At the same time, the number of allocated seats needs to be increased to meet the growing demand,” he added.
ABM Kamruzzaman, divisional railway manager in Chattogram, said trains do not stop at stations with low passenger-demand in order to reduce overall travel time.
“It’s not just about adding stops — we also have to maintain the scheduled journey time. That’s why we can’t allow stops at too many stations, even if it causes inconvenience for some passengers,” he explained.
“At the moment, there is no plan to introduce a stop for any additional train at Lohagara station. However, if passenger demand increases, we may consider it in future,” he added.
