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Saving the Railway
At a time the country's railway is gasping tor breath, it tries to prove it is not in a terminal condition. One common method to show that it is kicking and very much alive is to observe railway weeks from to time. Yesterday began one such week and predictably there will be no dearth of fanfare ana rituals in the exercise. Whether it will infuse some much needed fresh blood into the system is however a different issue. Even if the flurry of activity organised specially on the occasion records some improvement somewhere, it may not take long to disappear once the week has been observed
We would rather like to raise a few fundamental questions about the whole service. Railway as an enterprise is returning with a bang almost all over the world. But ours is a case in the reverse. What is even more surprising is that the authorities hardly betray any sign of recognising the almost dying state of this once profitable concern. It is not for nothing that demands arp being made to give it to private hands. Already a private company has been handed over the responsibility to sell tickets through a computer system. This alone can hardly prove effective in restoring the railway's health
So many things have gone wrong with the Bangladesh Railway, and over the years the wear and tear has been so pronounced that many now consider it to be a lost case. But it does not have to be so. given its unrealised potential for the most part, let alone messing up whatever has been pressed into service. The fact that the railway has become a losing concern owes to mismanagement, malpractices and lack of any forward looking plan for the service. The precariously perched lines with insufficient gravels to hold the iron rails together and bear the load are themselves a proof of neglect and lack of awareness of the possible accidents.
Such an indifference runs through the entire system so much so that maintenance has become the first casualty and a section of corrupt employees as reported from time to time, is involved in a whole range of racketeering, starting with black marketing of ticket to smuggling out of furniture from the coaches and diesel from the engines. The inter-city train service is not doing very badly but at a cost. The cost is in the shape of denying the local passengers of the facility, a policy that runs counter to attracting as many passengers as possible. This move was taken to stop the ticketless travelling by passengers. But nei ther has the move been successful in curbing this illegal practice nor has it been able to serve a larger number of people.
Today, the situation is so hopeless that the road transport, bus to be precise, has lured the passengers out of its reach — not least because travelling by bus is less time-consuming and cheaper. But is it not inexplicable why the railway is a poor competitor pitted against the bus service A journey by train is neither comfortable nor less risky. Even so. the deciding factor seems to be economic. A train Journey is more costly and time consuming.
For the railway to have any future here, the whole system must go through an overhaul. For example, a few countries in the world now retain the metre gauge but we have not yet put in a serious effort to go broad gauge. Another important point is that the railway cannot solely depend on passengers for profit: it must carry goods. But as things stand today its share of freight has fallen by as much as 50 per cent over the past 20 years. . So these are the areas where things must undergo changes for the railway to be brought at par with the new status being enjoyed by it. worldwide. today.