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TRAIN TRAVEL

Passengers halve as population doubles

PINAKI ROY
The number of railway passengers has halved in the 34 years since independence although the population has doubled.
According to Bangladesh Railway (BR) statistics, in fiscal year (FY) 1969-70, when the country's population stood at 70 million, the railway carried 72.88 million passengers. But in FY2001-02, against a population of 140 million, only
38.72 million people travelled by trains, marking a 46.88 percent plunge over the 34 years.
The lack of proper policy,
planning, management, maintenance and investment has made the BR a sick
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and mammoth loss-making concern. The facilities have become so unwholesome and the journey so risky as to make trains progressively unpopular as a means of transport. People now really dare to commute by trains, as more than half of the country's 2,792km railroad network has fallen in a state of appalling dilapidation, leading to over 500 accidents a year.
The director general (DG) of railway department of communications ministry, AFM Mustafizur Rahman, admitted the decreasing number of railway commuters.
On remedial initiatives, he said, "Railway is a vast affair," and argued, "It's impossible and unrealistic to change the entire system and solve all the problems overnight. We need lots of money and time to do that." So, he prescribed, "We have to go slow," and also claimed that "the government is willing and investing more money to improve the situation."
When contacted, most of the high officials at the communications ministry and it railway department shied away from talking about the negative growth of BR's popularity.
One of them however ventured to say, on condition of anonymity, "The country's policymakers after the Liberation War have always preferred constructing new roads to expanding railway network and facilities that has resulted in the present woebegone situation of the department."
Despite repeated recommendations in the last 10 years by the BR regulatory body to repair at least the 1,500km train-track that has become the most dilapidated and unsafe, the government is still unwilling to allocate adequate maintenance budget to the BR or pass any major improvement project.
Against a demand of Tk 3.94 billion, the government in the last five years has provided the department with only Tk 1.50 billion for rail-track maintenance.
The department is also understaffed for maintenance work. It has a 2,917-man staff for railroad repairs and maintenance against the 4,565 needed, BR sources said.
"We have been sending project proposals for improving railway tracks since FY1996. But most of them have been turned down by the Ecnec [Executive Committee of National Economic Council]," a high official of the department said.
"Ministers and lawmakers are keener to build roads and highways looking forward to the tender process," he alleged, adding, "So, the railway department has always been neglected and become rundown by
the day."
According to sources, the government has been sitting on its hands over some projects for repairing railway tracks including the West Zone mainline, some branch lines in Chittagong, Rajshahi, Lalmonirhat, Dinajpur, Netrokona and Sylhet.
But DG Rahman said the Ecnec meeting not clearing some projects does not necessarily mean they won't be approved later. "We have submitted some more proposals and those will be passed soon," the DG said in an optimistic vein.
However, there is one initiative of the authorities that has met with much appreciation, which is to modernise the signalling system at some railway stations on the Dhaka-Sylhet route.
Officials concerned said the project aims at increasing the speed of trains. Due to the age-old signalling system, they said, trains on this route cannot run faster than 48km an hour. But on completion of this scheme, locomotives will be able to move at a speed over 80km per hour, they claimed.
Railway experts however contradicted that view saying only modernising the signalling system without repairing the rail-tracks would not increase the speed of trains or reduce the number of accidents.
"Some branch lines are in pretty bad shape. It has become a high-risk venture indeed to ply trains on those routes. The government should take immediate steps to correct the situation," said a high official.
Only last week some bogies of a local train derailed in Nilphamari due to run-down rail-track.
The locomotive driver, Fazlul Haque, reportedly said the accident happened as there were no sleepers and rocks between the rails. The train carrying about 200 passengers narrowly escaped a major accident as it was moving at a speed of only 30km per hour, he added.