The railways in a country like Bangladesh could have served the economy well at a time when highways and waterways are fraught with various hazards. This mode of speedy and less risky transport has assumed greater importance in view of snail's pace in execution of different projects that are related to building of four- and six-lane highways and maintenance of other roads. Also for many years, the government's transport strategy has largely focused on the road sector - with 85 per cent of its annual transport development budget allocated for roads. But the Bangladesh Railway (BR) has received very scanty capital investment, because most of the available government funding goes to undertaking development as well as operations and maintenance of other modes of transportation and underwriting its (government's) losses on operations and passenger services. With dilapidated infrastructure and rolling stock, and associated poor staff morale, it is no wonder that the railway has lost share to road transport. Once considered the backbone of communication in this region, today the BR has a fringe role in the country's transport system.
Experts attribute railway accidents to its governance problems. This paper reported last Saturday that 156 people were killed and more than 450, injured in 1,100 train accidents across the country over the last five fiscal years. The highest number of casualties was reported in fiscal year (FY) 2013-2014 with 49 people dead. The deaths are likely to give a wrong impression that railways anywhere provide only risky journeys. But in reality, it is not. Nowhere across the world have railway accidents been so frequent as it is in case of Bangladesh. 'Black cats' connoting the corrupt also have made things worse, sapping all the potential of a modern and speedy railway sector.
As a result, the country suffers immeasurably. Railways could carry both passengers and cargoes swiftly without facing gridlock anywhere in its way and thus emerge as an effective engine of faster economic growth, had this mode of transportation been modernised. The rail network can be expanded with little land acquisition, and is more environmentally sustainable. It saves on energy and generates less pollution. In the densely-used corridors like the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, railways can provide an efficient passenger transport system. Trains can also transport freight containers much more efficiently than trucks and covered vans. Currently, the BR carries only 10 per cent of the containers coming to Chittagong. Better management practices could easily increase this. There are certainly factors behind non-development and decay of railway sector in Bangladesh since independence, with numerous highways being constructed and a growing number of automobiles running on the roads.
The policy planners should increasingly focus on the railways' vital importance in view of huge gridlocks on the country's highways and roads. Traffic jams cannot be eased through constructing more roads, as new roads will create more crossings that will cause more jams. Sadly, the railways are being ignored since the relevant parastatal - BR - is considered a losing and ineffective body due to lack of proper planning, budgetary constrains, absence of effective development activities and reform, shortage of manpower, inadequate structural development and dearth of rolling stock.
True, railways have been facing stiff competition from other modes of transportation, especially those of buses and trucks with the development of the country's road network. Yet, it still can hold its own as travelling by train has some marked advantages over journey by road, which is still not safe enough in this country's given context. Modernisation of the railways brooks no delay. For that matter, the parastatal in the railway sector has to be corporatised, first of all. A corporatised BR could operate like a business, while remaining fully government-owned.
