The government has decided to form a separate corporation to maintain the railway container services to enhance its transportation capacity and boosting business, an official said.
The ministry of Railway (MoR) took the decision at an inter-ministerial meeting in the Rail Bhaban recently.
Generally, different goods are transported from Dhaka to Chittagong port through containers. Some 95 per cent out of 100 per cent products are carried by Road and the rest 5 per cent transported via Dhaka Inland Container Depot (ICD), a high official of the MoR told FE.
He said country's highways have long been facing an abnormal pressure as a massive volume of export and import products are transported through containers. As a result, expenditure on repairs of the roads increases many fold. Besides, a significant valuable time is wasted due to traffic jam and other reasons.
A Joint Secretary of the MoR told the FE Saturday that the transportation of the goods through the railway carriers will increase by 50 to 60 per cent from the existing 5 per cent if the proposed step is implemented soon.
Besides, "valuable time will be saved in our business sector due to traffic jam which will expedite the export-import business, he added.  Â
Md Munsur Ali Sikder, NDC, Secretary in Charge of the MoR said in the meeting, gross output from railway container services will improve if it is made a corporation. For this, the ministry has proposed to reform the railway container services into corporation aiming to increase its capacity thus contributing to the country's economic growth.
Presently export businesses of the country have been increasing gradually. Export volume is worth about US$ 30 billion now. The main export item is different garment products. Besides, these are leather and leather goods, jute and jute goods, food, cottage and some other non-traditional and slow moving items.
Earlier, Asian Development Bank (ADB) agreed to provide US$ 430 million to the Bangladesh Railway (BR) for its improvement. The Manila-based lender imposed some conditions for the loan.
The conditions were: to convert the railway into a corporation, reformation of tariff and outsourcing of non-core services etc.
But later, the ADB brought about changes in the conditions. The new condition was to convert the Bangladesh Railway Container Services into a corporation.
However, BR is now working to prepare the draft of the proposed conversion of the container services. After formulating the proposal, the MoR would send it to the cabinet division for approval.
A concept paper on the proposed railway container corporation had been prepared and sent to different ministries, departments and institutions for their opinions.
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