For much of Bangladesh's history, the northern districts symbolized hardship. Seasonal hunger-once known simply as Monga-was not an abstraction but a recurring reality, defining life in places like Nilphamari, Rangpur, Kurigram, and Dinajpur. Today, that narrative has fundamentally changed. What replaced despair was not charity or handouts, but industrial employment, local enterprise, and steady income. Northern Bangladesh has already proved that determined policy choices can transform lives.
Yet as the country stands on the threshold of a new political chapter, that progress now faces a quieter, less visible threat. It is not a shortage of labor, nor a lack of investors. It is logistics. Without a modern, reliable transport backbone, the north's industrial promise risks stalling before it reaches its full potential.
The experience of Nilphamari offers both a lesson and a warning. Since the establishment of the Uttara Export Processing Zone (UEPZ) in 2001, the district has undergone a remarkable transformation. What began with a single factory has grown into an industrial cluster employing tens of thousands of workers-most of them women. Monthly wages now circulate through local markets, reshaping household incomes, education outcomes, and social norms. Early marriages have declined, school enrollment has risen, and small businesses have flourished. Monga has vanished not only from the landscape but from daily vocabulary.
Encouraged by this success, the government has approved new industrial zones across the northern belt, including the Rangpur Economic Zone at Kaunia and planned zones in Kurigram and Dinajpur. Taken together, these initiatives have the potential to form a Northern Industrial Corridor-one capable of absorbing underemployed youth, empowering women, and correcting the long-standing imbalance in Bangladesh's industrial geography.
But industrialization does not succeedon factories alone. It succeeds when goods move smoothly, predictably, and competitively from factory gates to global markets. And here, northern Bangladesh remains critically disadvantaged.
Despite its industrial awakening, the region is still logistically isolated. More than 95 percent of Bangladesh's containerized exports move by road, and northern factories rely almost entirely on trucks to reach Chattogram Port-over 600 kilometers away. This dependence exposes exporters to congestion, deteriorating highways, fuel volatility, floods, and frequent delays. A single disruption on the road network can ripple through entire supply chains. For exporters racing to meet tight international delivery windows, every lost hour erodes competitiveness.
This is not merely an inconvenience. It is a form of structural exclusion-what might be called logistics poverty. A region that defeated hunger through enterprise now risks losing its hard-won gains because it lacks modern freight connectivity.
The solution is neither exotic nor experimental. It already exists in national plans and regional experience: rail-based freight logistics anchored by inland container depots.
Rail transport offers unmatched advantages for medium- and long-distance cargo. A single freight train can replace dozens of trucks, moving goods more cheaply, more safely, and with a fraction of the environmental footprint. If exporters in Nilphamari and surrounding districts could load containers at a nearby rail-linked inland container depot, shipments to Chattogram could be completed in significantly less time and at substantially lower cost.
The opportunity is strikingly practical. The Khairat Nagar railway station lies barely one kilometer from the Uttara EPZ gate. With modest track upgrades and targeted investment, this short stretch could anchor a fully functional ICD-enabling customs clearance, container stuffing, and direct rail dispatch to the port. Similar rail-connected nodes already exist at Kaunia in Rangpur and Parbatipur in Dinajpur. Together, these locations could form the backbone of a northern logistics network integrated into the national rail grid.
What is missing is not feasibility, but coordination: Multiple agencies hold pieces of the puzzle. Bangladesh Railway controls tracks and scheduling. BEPZA oversees export zones. BIDA promotes investment. Customs authorities regulate clearance. Yet without a single, empowered mechanism to align these institutions, progress remains slow. The result is fragmentation-plans without execution, intentions without timelines.
As election campaigns give way to a new government in the coming weeks, this challenge presents a rare opportunity. Rail-based freight connectivity in northern Bangladesh is a project that transcends party lines. It promises visible economic returns within a single term, aligns with climate and safety goals, and addresses regional equity-an issue that resonates deeply with voters outside the Dhaka-Chattogram corridor.
The timing is particularly favorable. International development partners have long supported rail modernization and dry-port development across South Asia. Projects that combine export competitiveness, women's employment, and emissions reduction sit squarely within their financing priorities. With clear political direction and credible feasibility studies, concessional funding for a Nilphamari ICD and related upgrades could be mobilized rapidly.
At the same time, foreign partners are signaling growing interest in Nilphamari as a long-term growth center. Discussions around establishing a friendship hospital supported by China underscore confidence in the region's future. Such social infrastructure investments are most effective when paired with strong economic foundations. Industrial employment, healthcare access, and logistics connectivity together create livable industrial towns rather than isolated factory enclaves.
The benefits of shifting freight from road to rail would extend far beyond exporters. Fewer trucks mean fewer road accidents, less congestion, lower fuel consumption, and reduced pressure on already overstretched highways. Government spending on road maintenance would decline. Communities along transport corridors would experience cleaner air, less noise, and safer travel conditions. Most importantly, a competitive northern industrial base would generate thousands of additional jobs, reinforcing the social gains achieved over the past two decades.
What would success look like? A Northern Industrial Corridor anchored by three logistics nodes: Nilphamari serving garments and light manufacturing through a rail-linked ICD; Rangpur's Kaunia zone specializing in agro-processing with cold-chain connectivity; and Parbatipur functioning as a bulk and inter-regional logistics hub. All three would connect seamlessly to the Dhaka-Chattogram freight corridor, integrating the north into national and global value chains.
To reach that goal, the incoming government should take several decisive steps early in its tenure. First, designate the Nilphamari Rail Link and ICD project as a national flagship for regional development. Second, establish a high-level inter-agency task force with clear accountability and timelines. Third, instruct Bangladesh Railway to prioritize freight scheduling and targeted track rehabilitation for the northern corridor. Fourth, invite private logistics operators to participate through transparent public-private partnership models that ensure efficiency and sustainability.
Equally important is evidence-based policymaking. Universities, think tanks, and research institutions should be encouraged to quantify the cost of logistics inefficiencies for northern exporters and compare road and rail alternatives. Data-driven advocacy strengthens policy choices and accelerates implementation.
Rail connectivity is not a luxury for the north-it is a strategic necessity for the nation. As Bangladesh charts its course under a new government, prioritizing rail-based freight and inland container depots in the northern districts would signal a commitment to balanced growth, export competitiveness, and climate responsibility. Logistics, after all, shapes destiny. And for northern Bangladesh, the time to secure that destiny is now.
The writer is former Head of ICD Kamalapur & Pangaon ICT, CPA; Adjunct Faculty, Bangladesh Maritime University
