Bangladesh Railway (BR) plans to press 93 commuter trains wait on into carrier to facilitate short-distance travels for native other folks and microscopic merchants. These trains had been withdrawn over the closing 15 years because of enhanced emphasis on intercity expresses as properly as shortages of manpower, engines, and coaches, in step with officials.
These vogue of used trains had been suspended at some level of the pandemic, together with one which is aged 50 years. Authorities now notion to renovate them and reinstate them into 2nd-class commuter services and products.
These embrace the Isha Khan Divulge on the Dhaka-Mymensingh route, the Jalalabad Divulge on the Chattogram-Sylhet route, two trains on the Mymensingh-Dewanganj upazila route, and 4 trains on the Sylhet-Chhatak upazila route.
Officials acknowledged that despite importing engines and coaches within the route of the final decade, the resumption of 2nd-class commuter put together operations has been hindered by the reluctance of ministers and individuals of parliament from the previous govt.
As one more, newly imported trains had been supplied on less-frequented routes in step with political concerns, a lot like demands from ministers or lawmakers, they added.
“Though put together coaches and engines had been imported, it became once not that it is doubtless you’ll well be ready to think with the intention to add them to the 2nd-class commuter put together services and products. Now we’re planning to convert the used coaches of the intercity trains into 2nd-class trains,” BR Director General Sardar Shahadat Ali suggested TBS.
In September, Bangladesh Railway compiled a checklist of suspended trains from each and every the jap and western regions. This checklist became once forwarded to Railway Bhaban, detailing the reasons for the suspensions.
Md Shahidul Islam, chief operating superintendent of the Jap Zone of the BR, suggested TBS, “The jap space on an everyday basis will get 830 coaches and 63 engines to stride trains. Daily some put together schedules are disrupted because of an engine shortage.”
In accordance to the railway timetable book, Bangladesh Railway has 383 scheduled trains: 212 within the jap space and 171 within the western space.
Then yet again, only 284 trains are for the time being operational, whereas ninety 9 had been suspended — 50 within the jap space and 49 within the western space. Among the many suspended trains, six are international services and products operating between Bangladesh and India.
Shortage of manpower, coaches, and locomotives
In accordance to the Railway Transport and Mechanical Engineering Department, over 3,000 coaches and around 500 locomotives are desired to operate all trains.
Then yet again, Bangladesh Railway for the time being has approximately 2,500 coaches and 300 engines, and never all of them are operational.
Many of the engines and coaches like exceeded their lifespan, with around 2,000 active coaches and about 200 active engines remaining.
Within the jap space, 1,131 coaches and 76 engines are operational, whereas the western space has 890 coaches and 153 engines in employ.
One other vital trouble going thru the railway is a lack of manpower, mentioned BR Director General Sardar Shahadat Ali.
He mentioned, “The manpower crisis within the railway is longstanding. After hiring put together drivers today, I hoped the crisis would perhaps well be resolved. Then yet again, most of them left for various jobs after polishing off their training, which has perpetuated the shortage.”
He immediate that retired railway personnel who’re bodily fit can also very properly be recruited on a contractual basis and worthy that a proposal has been submitted to the ministry relating to this topic, which is for the time being into consideration.
Excessive spending, low yield
In accordance to the railway, approximately Tk1 lakh crore has been invested within the come of Bangladesh Railway over the closing ten years.
Of this amount, around Tk70,000 crore has been dispensed for the building of railway strains, bridges, structures, and the acquisition of engines and coaches.
While the railway has added roughly 800 coaches and 30 locomotives, the novel engines and coaches are too elephantine to operate on older bridges.
Additionally, plans are underway to import about 300 novel engines, but this route of will rob on the least two extra years. For this reason, the railway sector is incurring annual losses exceeding Tk 2,000 crore.
