Save railways
Though railways is taken to be the most effective means of communication through out the world, the Bangladesh Railways (BR) has failed to live upto that level due to acute manpower shortage, coaches and locomotives crisis, closure of railway stations one after another, vulnerable track and fishplates, frequent accidents, theft of fish bolts and stones, and above all management crisis.
The BR has stopped printing of timetable from early nineties in order to discourage passengers from traveling by railways in order to help private bus companies boost their transport businesses. Perhaps, no other railway company in the world does it.
According to the railway website, the BR suffered a loss of Tk 249.46 crore during the fiscal 2014-15 and earned a revenue of Tk 445. 62 crore only.
Contrarily, the Indian Railways (IR) earned a profit of $230 crore and a revenue of $24 billion in 2014-15 fiscal.
The BR is divided into two zones and four divisions. The Zones are East and West, while the divisions are Paksey, Lalmonirhat, Dhaka and Chittagong
The IR is divided into 16 zones. Five of them are the Central Railway, the Northern Railway, the Western Railway, the Eastern Railway and the Bengal Nagpur Railway.
The mammoth difference between the two railways in respect of profit and revenue earnings indicate our defective planning and poor management, which should be repaired without delay. The government should take utmost care of railways in the interest of all.
Abdullah Akber
Dhaka
