Bamboo in railway track and passengers` safety

A LEADING daily on Monday said wood and bamboo sticks have been used with iron bars in railway tracks at places in Kurigram and Moulvibazar. What is more noticeable is that bamboo and wood were used at least in three sections of a railway bridge in Kurigram. Slice of bamboo sticks clearly appears along the 50-metre bridge, located near the Ulipur Panchpeer Railway Station. This is a high-risk factor for train commuters as the use of poor quality materials will definitely leave the tracks and bridges weak to be easily vulnerable to fatal accidents.

As per reports bamboo has been used in bridge, 17J, on Kurigram route. Currently, a local train runs on the 47-kilometre route with a low speed of 25 kilometres per hour on an average due dilapidated condition of track. People prefer low cost journey by train but the risk of fatal accidents is discouraging them to use railway anymore at many places. The visibility of bamboo slice in the track added more fear in the common people. The disclosure that even the loco masters (train drivers) are not willing to run trains risking their lives on faulty route tells about how deplorable the condition of railway track at many places.

Disclosure said from 2009 to 2016, Bangladesh Railway rehabilitated more than 600km of its dilapidated tracks and there are also several ongoing projects. It appears that dishonest contractors and a section of Railway Officers are engaging in the mischief now as also in the past.

It is no secret that they are using bamboo and wood with iron sheets to save cost to make exorbitant profit to share the benefits. We must say it is a high crime and be investigated to stop the mischief and punish the offenders. We have earlier run editorials on use of bamboo stick as construction materials with iron bars for government office building in Bogra and University building in Rajshahi, besides at many other places. It is quite dismaying that despite such projection in national dailies the mischief is going on unabated. In our view the government should take serious measures to stop it.

Railway tracks and bridges take heavy load of a running train with passengers and cargoes or without it. Even iron sleepers on the rail tracks often falter on weight to cause accidents. People can’t volunteer to die or become fatally injured using trains that run on weak and faulty tracks. It is deplorable if the higher Railway Authorities are not paying heed to the concerns of the local railway employees about the risks of running trains on such faulty lanes. We suggest that the concerned authorities must immediately remove bamboo and wood from railway tracks to avoid accidents while improving the overall condition of railways.