SM Salimullah Bahar, Economist,
Bangladesh Railway
BR authorities have already implemented a good number of development projects, many are being implemented and many more are under process of implementation to improve the overall performance of rail transport, deliver quality and uninterrupted services to the people and ensure the punctuality of train services so that BR can usher in a new era of land transport in Bangladesh
Railway is the most economic mss transportation system in the world. By reducing the cost of transport, the railway can make easy the movement of labour, capital goods, food stuff, and others necessities to the different places within and outside the country.
Railway appeared first in Britain in 1825. It was introduced to the USA in 1833, to Germany in 1835, Bengal in 1854. Thus in the adaptation of railway technology which has revolutions in the world transportation system. Bengal was not far behind Europe and America.
The forerunner of the introduction of railway in Bengal was RM tephenson, a civil engineer, who first conceived the idea of establishing railway tracts in Bengal and North India. He founded a company in London called the “EAST INDIAN RAILWAY” in 1844. But it took him a few years to get necessary clearance and sign a contract with the government. It was entirely a private initiative with the government participation in the form of land acquisition and a term of guaranteed profit to the company for capital investment. The first railway track was constructed from Howrah to Raniganj opened in 1854, the main objective was to carry coal from Raniganj cowries. Starting from Howrah the East India Railway soon terminated in Delhi.
Construction of railways in the territory of today’s Bangladesh was first conceived by a military civil engineer, CoL JP Kennedy. In 1852, he proposed to connect a railway line from calcutta across the Sundarbans to the east bank of Gangu and then to Dhaka. In 1855, Major Aben cromble and LA Gerald, Head of Bengal Engineers undertook a field survey and submitted a report detailing the proposed to be named the “Eastern Bengal Railway” Detailed plans and estimates were prepared under the supervision of a senior railway engineer named IWR. Purdon
This was the beginning of the history of railway in British-Bangladesh. Kushtia was the terminal but in 1867 it was shifted to Gorai due to breach in the river padma and the original Kushtia station was abandoned. The 75 km long railway line from Khustia to Goalanda, an island river post on the bank of Padma was opened on 1st January 1871.
On the 1st July, 1884 the British government took over the Eastern Bengal Railway and renamed as the “Eastern Bengal State Railway”.
In 1885 the 144 km long Naryanganj-Dhaka-Mymensingh metre gauge (1000 m) railway line was opened under the title of Dhaka state Railway mainly for carriage of raw jute up to Naryanganj and then onwards by river to calcutta. Construction of Assam Bengal railway was in change of management of Mymensing-Gowripur-Bhairub railway line.
In order to provide a continuous line between Calcutta and North Bengal and Assam, Construction of a bridge over rivers Padma name “Hardinge Bridge” was constructed and metre gauge was converted to Broad gauge in 1944.
As a matter of principle the British government adopted these types of railway gauge- broad (1767 m), metre (1000 m) and narrow (762 m) depending upon involvement of capital cost and rate of return. Extension of railway lines was done to connect commercially important areas.
All private railway companies operated under specific contract containing provisions about land, government aid, terms and profits, rates and fanes, special obligations about conveyance of postal mails, troops, polices, government officials and coins
After the partition of Bengal in August 1947, the Bengal and Assam Railway was split up between Pakistan and India. East Bengal (East Pakistan) inherited 2606.59 km of railway line which was name as Eastern Bengal Railway (EBR). On 1 February 1961, it was rename Pakistan Eastern Railway. EBR had about 500 km broad gauge and 2100 km meters gauge tracks, but no workshop to repair broad gauge locomotives and rolling stock. East Pakistan authorized a meters gauge workshop at syedpur. EPR suffered from operational drawbacks and physical impediments in movement of traffic, discontinuous tracks and transshipment points etc.
After the emergence of independent Bangladesh, the name became Bangladesh Railway (BR). It inherited 2858.73 km of tracks, 466 stations. Under a realignment scheme work on shifting Dhaka railway station from Phulbaria which was opened to traffic on 1 may 1968.
The government controls over railway as legislative, construction and executive areas. The Indian railway Act IX of 1890 was adopted British parliament. The act a modified by Government of Indian Act 1935, Pakistan 1947, and Bangladesh 1971 Now Bangladesh Railway has 6 workshops, 34 massive vessel 235 passengers and 48 freight trains.
(Source-Railway Bangladesh pedia)
Rail transport plays a major role the regional develop and eco growth the present world. It is considered as social obligatory service, cheapest, environment friendly. Bangladesh economy is burdened by major transportation constraints. These lead to lower efficiency, higher transport costs, and most significantly transport unreliability.
(Source-Problem and prospect of a railway: A case study of Bangladesh railway-Md. Rokibul Hasan)
As railway is a very important mode of inland travel, its healthy growth naturally contributes to the economic development of the country. But BR at present, have been suffering from various operational bottlenecks.
BR, a total of 2584.96 route km is made up of truncated portions of East Bengal Railway and Bengal Assam Railway of the then British Indian railway system BR can be principle transportation agency of country. It is a government owned and Government managed unique of population for a long time.
Critical analysis of the efficiency of BR points up the worsening operating ratio, Its continuing large deficit and high level direct and indirect Government subsidy in probably the single biggest issue for transportation of goods of Bangladesh in transport section. BR is now in poor and inefficient management.
source:- service quality of Bangladesh Railway as perceived by passenger.
-Mohammad Kamal Uddin Mallike De
One of the service quality indicators for rail transportation system is service evaluation for passenger’s perspective. An in-depth analysis of the responses revealed as overall pictures of the rail service. The service quality of railway was a mixed blessing to passengers. The most common curse are hassle in getting tickets, dishonesty of train ticket examiners, unclear condition of toilet, unreasonable food price, substandard food in canteen and a disproportionate face number of coaches then requirement. The findings of the present structures can be taken to us in policy making to meet user needs.
Source:- problems and prospects of a railway:- A case study of Bangladesh Railway-Md. Rokibul Haque
Bangladesh Railway has a rail network of 2955.53 km connecting 44 districts. It carries 4-5% passengers among all transport section of Bangladesh. But BR suffers from various operational problems like different gauge in different areas, level crossings, over aged rolling stocks & signaling systems, single lines ,closed stations, missing rail links, speed restriction, lack in inter connections are main problems hindering its improvement recent information reveals.
That gauge rationalization high speed train, installation of new rail links, modernization of rail tracks are considered to improve the poor rail communication in Bangladesh. In this content, present Government has taken some projects such as construction of double line tracks, construction of single line dual gauge track etc.
Time, technology and trade, then three things moves today’s world. Now BR developed this web portal (www.bris.com) to reduce people suffering and avoid the complex manual information system of BR.
Bangladesh Railway is expected to experience a revolutionary improvement where the under constructed Padma multipurpose Bridge is completed as it will also include a railway track and shall connect the un-served regions within southern Bangle. Bangladesh Railway can play more effective roles in attaining the goals of Vision 2021 and Vision 2041 that our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already set for achieving economic growth and ensuring sustainable development in Bangladesh and turning Bangladesh into a dignified status from LDC (least developed country) to DC (developing country) to DC (developed country) by 2041.
Realizing this, the present government, under the dynamic leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, has identified the problems and potentials of rail transport and given special attention to the development of Bangladesh Railway and under taken a number of steps to implement the overall developments in rail transport across the country. Among many of this epoch – making steps of the government, the establishment of the Ministry of Railway (MOR), one of the highest allocations of the annual development budget for Railway and framing of a Comprehensive Master Plan (2016-2045) and 8th five year plan for Railway development are highly mentionable.
All these have been possible due to active initiatives of Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. So, being imbued with these initiatives, BR authorities have already implemented a good number of development projects, many are being implemented and many more are under process of implementation to improve the overall performance of rail transport, deliver quality and uninterrupted services to the people and ensure the punctuality of train services so that BR can usher in a new era of land transport in Bangladesh.( Source:- A story of significant program. Daily stars report and guardian)
