Bangladesh Railway
has been neglected for years. Recently government has given priority on this
oldest transportation service in the country. The parliamentary standing
committee on Railway Ministry suggested taking initiative to make BR
(Bangladesh Railway) more people friendly with modern services. The committee
suggested updating policies for purchasing of different Railway components and
instrument with experts opinions.
Recently the BR has
demanded a Tk 150 billion to acquire land for Padma Bridge rail connectivity
and Dohazari –Cox’s Bazar railway projects. In 2015-16 fiscal years, the
government had allocated a Tk 56.5billion BR but it had to refund a 6.5 billion
aid from India due to lack of progress in the projects.
Meanwhile, BR
signed an agreement with China Railway Group Limited for construction of a 174-
km rail-track that would connect the Padma multipurpose bridge with a cost at
USD 3.14 billion.
In March, 2016, BR
increased train fare by7.5 % on average but unfortunately it did not yet
improve its service qualities for passengers. Critics said much corruption,
false policies, abuse of money, local and international syndication by
automobile firms’ lobbying-all things made BR a failed and loss sector while
the rail transportation are known as the safest and cheapest transportation
ways around the world.
BR has a trend to
put its burden on passengers to cope with its continuous loosing. In 2012, it
had increased fare and the annual loss was reduced by Tk. 2.74billion in two
years but fare hike also reduced it passengers. Mostly, goods transportation
reduced at a notable rate while operating expenses are also increased. As a result,
state owned railway company experienced a 39% decrease in goods transportation.
After the
liberation war in 1971, the rail sector was out of government focus and now
about 1200km rail tracks were at risk due to lack of proper maintenances for
years. Many railways lines were closed but reason is unknown while the
government should have increased railways instead. There are so many problems
in this sector but the major problems are locomotives shortages and route
capacity.
Fortunately the
government has taken some initiatives to revive this potential transportation
sector. Now the government decided to reopen 27 closed stations across the
country within a year. BR may face a great challenge to develop railways
services as the design and construction of rail tracks in the country were not
made to serve the modern facilities those need for modern passengers. Even
after several years of liberation war, the authorities failed to establish link
between East and West Zone. Moreover, most of the rail links are not straight
as it has many rounding loops in various sections.
To improve railway
service, the government needs not to invest for fast train service as
geographical limitation is not suitable for such a type of railway. Rather
authorities should take proper initiatives to change the BR bad images by
implementing sustainable development projects.
