Staff Reporter :The Bangladesh Railway (BR) has taken a set of proactive measures to upgrade operational activities of railways to ensure better services for the passengers, sources said.They said, once the measures are implemented within the next seven years, BR is expected to revive its lost glory.Under the measures, the Railway Ministry will first ensure timely train service, include more coaches to its fleets, strengthen security system of trains, establish better catering services and stop black marketing of tickets and upgradation of stations and Railway tracks.Besides, the Railways Ministry will also restart operation of closed stations on a priority basis. “Railway is the popular service across the globe, but in Bangladesh mostly the poor and people in transport crisis avail the service. Now we have taken initiative to popularise the service through implementing a set of measures,” Director General (DG) of BR Mohammad Abu Taher told The New Nation on last Thursday.”We are trying to upgrade all the services of railways like those of developed countries. After implementation of the measures, train passengers would be given all types of modern services in catering, toilet, security, timely arrival and departure and many more,” he said. The BR DG also said, “In neighbouring India, people’s first choice of communication is railway. We are also trying to develop our train service as a modern mode of transportation.”According to him, public administration personnel and civil society people would also be involved with ensuring the modern railway services.”Public administration personnel and civil society people would be involved with bringing down unethical activities like black marketing of tickets in the crime-prone areas and other places as required,” the Railways DG said.However, Railways Minister Md Mujibul Haque said, the measures mentioned above are part of efforts of the government to modernise the BR.”We have a plan to modernise the BR like such services in developed countries. This effort is a part of our vast plan of modernisation,” he said.”The government has a plan to bring massive changes in the railway both in passenger service and goods carrying. And we will leave no stone unturned in this connection,” he added.According to the Railways Minister, BR is going to recruit a good number of officers and staff to ensure the planned services. After completion of recruitment, we will start operation of the closed railway stations gradually to give a balanced service across the country.More than 69 stations have long remained closed for want of required human resources. Although some closed stations have been brought under operation in the last one year, he informed.The Railways Minister also informed that the government already purchased a number of goods trains and modern passenger trains like DEMU to meet the increasing demand of the services.”Once all these initiatives are implemented, BR would emerge as a modern and prestigious service in the country,” Haque said.
