The New Nation - Internet Edition

A.T.M.Nurun Nabi

Economic development of a country largely depends, among other things, upon an advanced technology and modernized communication system. Bangladesh is no exception. It is notable that the contribution of transport and communication in GDP was 10.21 percent during the fiscal year 2006-07, but railway as sub sector contributed a little.

The country's communication system is divided into four sub-sectors, namely, railway, Roads & Highways (R & H), river route and airways. The length of Bangladesh Railway is 2854.96 kilometers, according to Bangladesh Economic Review 2007. Of it, broad gauge lines constitute 660.22 kilometers, duel gauge lines 365 km and meter gauge lines 1829.74 km. In contrast, the length of R & H is 21,571 kilometers, an increase of 4017 km from that of 1996-97. It appears from the given statistics that, even the total length of railway is much less than the increased length of R & H.

The government allocated taka 1760.91 crore to railway (development 685.55 crore, non-development 1075.36 crore) in the national budget 2007-08, a nominal increase of taka 213.52 crore over the allocation in the last budget. On the contrary, the amount of allocation to R & H in the said budget is taka 3497.41 crore, up 600.18 crore from the previous year's allocation. The difference of allocation between the two sectors simply tells the story of disparity.

According to Bangladesh Economic Review, Bangladesh Railway earned taka 330.64 crore during the fiscal 1996-97 while the revenue expenditure stood at taka 414.17 crore. After 11 years, the earnings came down to 163.86 crore but the revenue expenditure increased to taka 526.64 crore, however, down from taka 960.17 crore during the fiscal 2006-07.

As regards the plight of railway, several factors may be mentioned. These are:

1.The standard of service has deteriorated,

2.Disparity of allocation in the national budget between R & H and railway,

3. Weak administration debarring the authority from taking action against the inefficient employees and those who shirk duties,

4.Absence of strong monitoring system at the divisional offices,

5.Vulnerable condition of the track causing accidents off and on,

6. Decreasing speed of the trains,

7. Absence of timetable facilitating the passengers to know the arrival and departure time of trains they want to travel by,

8. Apathy of many station masters and other employees to respond the queries of the passengers over phone,

9. Unauthorized traveling by the ticketless passengers on different routes have compelled the genuine passengers to go by road.

Consequently, passengers who once liked the journey by trains in the past have turned their faces to buses even on those routes where the two take equal time. As for example, it takes 6.35 hours to reach Rajshahi from Dhaka by train. And the journey by buses takes almost equal time. Yet passengers prefer buses. Bangladesh railway transported six crore 36 lakh and 55 thousand passengers during 1972-73 fiscal when the country's population was 7.5 crore. Astonishingly, the number of the passengers traveling during the year 2006-07 decreased to four crore 34 lakh and three thousand although the country's population became almost double. There is no room for anybody to take it lightly. The government must take the matter seriously and adopt all possible means to improve and modernise the condition of Bangladesh Railway.

Bangladesh Railway is divided into two zones and five divisions. The zones are East and West while the divisions are Paksey, Lalmonirhat, Dhaka, Bhairob Bazar and Chittagong. Of them, Paksey has enough potentialities to become a tourist spot because of presence of Hardinge Bridge, Lalon Shah Bridge, EPZ, the dry river Padma and the pollution-free environment. Should the government be interested, the state revenue from the tourism sector may also be increased.