It doesn’t seem like a week goes by without being bombarded with data on the myriad irregularities occurring at the Bangladesh Railway (BR). According to the latest industry report published through this newspaper, we learned that around 30% (99 out of 361) of the trains in the BR fleet do not operate. Worse, those decommissioned trains are local, postal and commuter in nature, meaning low-income passengers are at a disadvantage from affordable rail service. While some of those trains were removed from the tracks at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many of them would have been inoperative for much longer. This neglect of visitor service in the BR component is just a symptom of how the state-owned firm has been too short during an era of more than a decade.
Although it has spent at least Tk 71 113 crore of the Tk 107 645 crore allocated through the government (for the era between 2008-09 and 2022-23, as a component of the annual progression programme), the long term of our rail sector remains unclear with overly long allocation deadlines, incredible charge increases and a sometimes lackluster state of operations. As recently as Dec. 3, a report through this newspaper noted that none of the 35 allocations implemented through BR had to meet their deadline. Twenty-five of those assignments have already earned time extensions, some of which go back a decade. And while many of those BR assignments experienced charge increases ranging from 13% to even 100%, a higher assignment to 873. 76%. One has to wonder how badly it will have to manage a sector, as a whole, to serve so badly on each and every front.
Meanwhile, as has already been widely reported, BR has suffered losses for a decade and has not made any profit since the 2008-09 fiscal year. In the last monetary year, the sector’s loss amounted to around Tk 2300 crore and it has yet to bring its cash back to pre-Covid figures. As for the closure of rail services, BR officials blame logistical disruptions such as a lack of cars and locksmiths, and irreparable cars. But it is a wonderful fear that BR’s superiors prefer to concentrate. only in building infrastructure than in educating your staff and maintaining your existing resources well. As one expert noted, it is quite indicative of BR’s lack of professionalism which, despite so much loyal public money, not only fails to generate profits, but also consistently provides low-quality services.
It is the best time for the government to hold Bangladesh Railway accountable for mismanagement of its financial and other resources, its failure to provide mandatory supplies to citizens, and countless other internal irregularities. Such an important sector cannot function in such a disorderly manner. that almost does not serve asal.