Making railway an affordable mode of transportation

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.