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Feeble signals make trains crawl on run-down tracks

PINAKI ROY
Run-down rail-tracks and an age-old signalling system have forced Bangladesh Railway (BR) engineers to impose speed limits of 5 to 40 km an hour (kph) at 30 railroad segments in Dhaka division alone to avoid any major accident.
Locomotive drivers said they have been facing a sea of troubles for the last couple of years in running train almost every where in the country. Their maximum speed for Bangla Station point is set at 5kph, Netrokona Court 5kph, Karawith 10kph, Ashuganj 16kph, Akhaura 10kph, Jagannathganj Ghat 15kph, Kurmitola airport 10kph and Tongi 20kph.
The speed ceiling is warranted because the track and the signalling are the worst in those sections, locomotive masters said.
Of its 2,792km railways network,
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the railway department urgently needs to repair at least 1,500km track that has fallen to ruin and has become too risky to run trains on.
Most of the 3,545 railway bridges have become dilapidated, too, due to lack of maintenance and, according to locomotive drivers, the 1,524 level crossings across the country also hinder them from running at high speed.
"Forget the remote areas, even in Dhaka City, from Kamalapur to Tongi, where the speed limit is 30kph, we can't run at more than 20kph, as at least half a dozen markets operate right on the rail-tracks," said a senior locomotive master.
Because of the slums by the railroads from Kamalapur railway station all the way to Tongi, he said, "we have to increase and decrease the speed continuously," adding, "You would also find sleepers and gravel missing from the tracks right in the capital."
In most places, the BR has a manually operated signalling system of mechanical interlocks, unchanged since its introduction in the British colonial period.
Out of its 454 stations across the country, the railway department has taken an initiative to install computer-controlled signalling devices at 22 railway stations on its Dhaka-Sylhet route in two phases. The new system costs Tk 88.50 crore and will take 18 months from now to complete installation.
Under the current, the second, phase, modern signalling devices will be set up at Laskarpur, Rashidpur, Shatgaon, Srimongol, Tanugachh, Shamsher Nagar, Tilagaon, Longla, Boramchal, Bhatera Bazaar, Maijgaon and Mogla Bazar stations. Earlier, the railway department made an agreement with a Korean company to fix up the new signalling gears at another 10 stations under the first phase of the project.
Railway department officials said the project aims at increasing trains' speed on this route, where they cannot run faster than 40kph now. On completion of the project, the speed
would be more than doubled, over 80kph.
But locomotive operators alleged the electrical signalling system already installed on the Dhaka-Chittagong route lacks maintenance and does not function properly. They are supposed to see the signals from at least 2,520 feet away, but they said, "It's possible to see them at night but we face problems seeing them at daytime, as the glasses of the signal lights are not cleaned properly. Reflection of sunlight obstructs our view, forcing us to cut down on the speed."
They also complained about branches of trees obstructing their view of signals on some routes like Dhaka-Mymensingh, alleging the authorities are unconcerned about the problem.
Railway Department Director General AFM Mustafizur Rahman however said, "We have been trying to improve the situation. We have signed some deals to better the signalling."
"We would like to upgrade signalling in the entire railway network, but it will take some time," he added.