THE rundown railway stations in Dhaka city are gradually becoming unusable with the authorities taking no steps to make the stations attractive for wider sections of passengers.
Vendors set up makeshift markets along the railway and in the stations’ spaces while waiting rooms and toilets are found locked most of the time, as per a report of a local daily.
At some stations members of Railway Nirapatta Bahini or Government Railway Police are hardly found on duty. The rundown stations include Gendaria, Tejgaon, Banani, Airport and even the main station Kamalapur — are bearing the marks of negligence in every service area. There are no arrangements to help female passengers to get on the train.
According to the railway, there are six stations inside the city and a total of 140 stations in Dhaka division. GRP data shows that at least 268 people were killed on 300 kilometres of rail tracks in and around Dhaka city in first eight months of 2014. Divisional Railway Manager (Dhaka) Quamrul Ahsan is said to have mentioned that the stations would be modernised under the projects for construction of the third and fourth dual gauge line on Dhaka-Tongi section and a double line on Dhaka-Narayanganj section.
Railways are among the most economical and cost effective ways of movement anywhere in the world. Keeping the stations clean and passenger friendly would not incur that much of a cost and would contribute to reducing the jams of Dhaka city considerably. More people would be encouraged to use the trains if they kept passenger friendly timings — which would mean that they would run with regularity during office hours (7am to 6 pm).
Unfortunately instead of upgrading trains and their stations, we are thinking of Mass Transit Railways and flyovers. Trains have the potential to move many people very quickly — at a much faster rate than cars and buses. Increasing use of trains would tremendously reduce the negative externalities associated with pollution and traffic congestion by saving time and lives. It is not too much to expect that the trains should run on reasonable and not ungodly hours and that restrooms and bathrooms be kept clean to facilitate increased usage of the railways. Surely our communications advisors have the sense to realize that this would help our over congested city’s communications to move more smoothly.
Of course at the heart of the answer as to why these things are not done is apathy — railways are, after all, public property. Why bother with their maintenance – it is maintained with public money. The sense to realize that public money is, in the end, our money still does not exist. Railways should be either be made more efficient or privatized — giving subsidies and making it run in the red makes no sense.
