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Railway sees Tk 215 cr loss as deficit

MIZANUR KHAN
Bangladesh Railway (BR) suffered a loss of around Tk 215 crore in the last fiscal year because of poor railway network, old and rundown locomotives and carriages and lack of proper management.
The BR earned about Tk 415 crore and spent more than Tk 629 crore during the fiscal year ending on June 30 this year, according to a highly placed BR source.
But the railway authorities consider it a deficit and not a loss saying that apart from maintaining rail
communication, they also do various social welfare work. "We do not run railway on commercial lines. Railway is the principal mode of mass transportation and the government gives subsidy to ensure rail communication for all," said AFM Mustafizur Rahman, director general (DG) of the BR.
Explaining this he said, "To carry one passenger a kilometre, we spend almost Tk 0.50 while we charge only Tk 0.15 so that everybody can afford it."
"Our social welfare work includes running 10 schools and colleges, 10 hospitals, 31 dispensaries and 21
maternity and child welfare centres for railway staff across the country that cost us a lot," the DG pointed out. " We spend almost Tk 17 crore a year only for the schools and colleges."
To get rid of the huge loss, the government carried out several reform measures over the years but that have not yielded desired results. The measures were slashing the number of railway staff to 34,465 from 58,000 and formation of Bangladesh Railway Authority last year.
"The number of retired railway officers, employees and workers is
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higher than the existing number of staff. Around Tk 80 crore is spent from the BR funds for 40,000 pensioners a year," one source said.
The BR cannot meet the high demand for railway transportation due to shortage of locomotives and carriages. It operates 278 locomotives and 1,349 carriages across the country that carry 4.45 crore passengers a year. About 75 percent of the locomotives have already crossed their economic life --20 years -- and about half of the carriages have crossed their normal life span, 30 years, sources mentioned.
They said 70 locomotives for metre and broad gauge lines are 36 to 50-year-old, 54 are 31 to 35-year-old and 86 are 21 to 30-year-old. It has become impossible to provide quality service to travellers with these rundown locomotives and carriages, dilapidated signalling system and century-old railway network.
"The railway authorities lack funds to maintain and repair the locomotives while many rundown carriages have remained inoperative for long," a senior official said seeking anonymity.
According to a BR report, over one lakh people travel by trains a day and the number is on the rise. In 20002001, the number of passengers was 3.87 crore, in 2002-2003 it was 3.90 crore and last year it rose to 4.45 crore.
Sources said successive governments have ignored railway sector since the independence. The country
now has 28,000 km of paved roads while it had only 400 km when British rule ended in 1947. But the railway network of 2,880 km at that time, mostly set up before 1905, still remain almost unchanged.
A 53-km-long broad gauge line between Darshana and Jagati in Kushtia was constructed first by Eastern Bengal Railway in 1862, they mentioned.
Train fare has not increased since 1992 but fuel price has gone up almost three times. Staff salary has also increased.
But the railway's income from ticket sale has risen over the last three years. The earning totalled Tk 159 crore in fiscal 2001-2002, Tk 161 crore in 2002-2003 and Tk 178 crore in 20032004, sources said.
The DG said the BR has launched a comprehensive Railway Recovery Programme (RRP) to improve its financial position through increased efficiency and cost reduction.
"We will expand our network establishing direct railway links between Dhaka and Laksham to shorten the distance by 90 km and between Jamuna Bridge and Bogra to reduce the distance by 114 km," Mustafizur said.
The BR already floated tender to buy 130 carriages, he mentioned. "We will also get 11 locomotives from South Korea by next year. We are planning to buy another 150 carriages from India soon."