Half the container service of Bangladesh Railway (BR) remains unused for uniformed apathy of traders in transporting cargos by train, claimed to be cheapest and safest mode of haulage.
BR authorities said the state-owned train operator has provided the latest facilities for exporters and importers through upgrading measures.
A top industry leader, eventually, pleaded ignorance about such measures shortening the time and cost of freight carriage by rail.
Sources said as the businesspeople still prefer to use road than rail in transporting goods to and from different ports, BR could not meet its augmented daily capacity of freight transportation.
Though train transportation time has been improved by building double lines in different corridors mainly with Chittagong Port, situation could not see much improvement.
For this reason, transport pressure continued to mount on roads and highways for the overloading of road capacity.
BR officials said since completion of Tongi-Bhairab double-line works in 2015, some 250 kilometres out of 321-km tracks on the Dhaka-Chittagong route have been transformed into dual lines.
This resulted in a drastic reduction in container train-operation time to 16 hours from 48 hours, they added.
However, business-community people argued that transportation time by road is much shorter than train run, and it can be transported straight to the destination through road haulage.
According to BR authorities, 450 container wagons now operate with six container expresses daily. BR introduced the container express to help businesspeople engaged in export and import with speed and safer goods transportation.
It is claimed that BR transports exportable from Dhaka ICD to Chittagong seaport at 50 per cent less fares and transformed its ICD into a company to improve the service.
According to the BR, container express itself has the capacity of transporting 360 TEUs on its six trains daily. But it has been able to transport 180 TEUs on average. This daily capacity can be augmented up to 480 TEUs.
The railway is able to transport 30 metric tonnes of cargos in each of its open-top and side-open containers.
During the last two years, BR carried 2.25 million tones, same as in the year 2012. During 2013 and 2014, it carried less than the present rate.
"We have improved our services through developing not only rail tracks but also introducing facilities for businessmen, but we do not get due response from them," said a senior BR official.
He said improvement for BR's run to full capacity could reduce the load on roads and highways, mainly on the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor which has already been overloaded with container services despite expansion of road capacity.
Analysts say rail being the cheapest and safest mode of transport service takes 80 per cent load of the cargo in any country.
However, Siddiqur Rahman, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said due to the hazard of loading and unloading several times from factory to port, garment owners usually feel discouraged from taking railway container service.
"We run with speed and time. Every minute is important for us. At present we can transport goods in seven to eight hours through road," the chief of the traded body in the country's main export industry told the FE over phone.
The BGMEA president, however, pointed out a lack of awareness among them as BR never tries to update them with their facilities.
"If BR ensures speed and time, I believe businessmen will be interested in using train as it is still considered safe," said the association president.
smunima@yahoo.com
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