Railways deserve a better deal
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Mohsin Monir
The government's transport strategy has largely been focused on the road sector and the lion's part of the annual transport development budget is allocated to roads. Donor support has also mirrored this pattern of emphasis. Bangladesh Railway (BR) did not receive much capital investment, and most of the available government funding for it went to underwriting its losses on operations and passenger services. With dilapidated infrastructure and rolling stock, and associated poor staff morale, it is no wonder that the railways have lost its share to road transport.
A growing economy needs an efficient and effective transport system. Power may currently be the more binding constraint, but transport, too, could become a bottleneck. The transport system needs to be more balanced across different modes than it is at present, with less relative emphasis on roads. First, expanding roads requires large scale land acquisition, a major constraint in Bangladesh; land acquisition often implies resettlement, another costly and difficult proposition in a land-scarce densely inhabited country. Second, road safety is already a major concern. On an average, twelve die every day in road accidents, and traffic and road-related accidents are the tenth largest cause of disability and death in Bangladesh.
Railways are much safer, and are not associated with such collateral damage. It has also much unutilized land space now, though a large part of it is under unauthorized possession by vested interest groups which often change their political loyalty with the changes in the power matrix. Third, road transport has major environmental 'externalities', as we, living in Dhaka, know.
In Manila, a city as polluted as Dhaka, a study found that lead and other vehicle-related pollutants caused irreversible brain damage to children under age two, causing a five point reduction in their IQ, and reducing their educational attainments and their productivity and incomes in later adult work.
While railways can be expanded with little land acquisition, it is also more environmentally sustainable. It saves on energy and generates less pollution. In densely used corridors, railways could provide an efficient passenger transport system; on the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor, rail transports freight containers much more efficiently than trucks. Currently, BR carries only a small fraction of the containers coming to Chittagong. Better management practices could easily increase this.
For the BR to better support the economy, a major modernization will be needed, calling for the coordinated effort of government, railways management and labour, and donor partners. Major investments will be needed, in tandem with reforms to improve its organizational structure and management practices, supported by a revamped policy environment for railways.
The government's transport strategy has largely been focused on the road sector and the lion's part of the annual transport development budget is allocated to roads. Donor support has also mirrored this pattern of emphasis. Bangladesh Railway (BR) did not receive much capital investment, and most of the available government funding for it went to underwriting its losses on operations and passenger services. With dilapidated infrastructure and rolling stock, and associated poor staff morale, it is no wonder that the railways have lost its share to road transport.
A growing economy needs an efficient and effective transport system. Power may currently be the more binding constraint, but transport, too, could become a bottleneck. The transport system needs to be more balanced across different modes than it is at present, with less relative emphasis on roads. First, expanding roads requires large scale land acquisition, a major constraint in Bangladesh; land acquisition often implies resettlement, another costly and difficult proposition in a land-scarce densely inhabited country. Second, road safety is already a major concern. On an average, twelve die every day in road accidents, and traffic and road-related accidents are the tenth largest cause of disability and death in Bangladesh.
Railways are much safer, and are not associated with such collateral damage. It has also much unutilized land space now, though a large part of it is under unauthorized possession by vested interest groups which often change their political loyalty with the changes in the power matrix. Third, road transport has major environmental 'externalities', as we, living in Dhaka, know.
In Manila, a city as polluted as Dhaka, a study found that lead and other vehicle-related pollutants caused irreversible brain damage to children under age two, causing a five point reduction in their IQ, and reducing their educational attainments and their productivity and incomes in later adult work.
While railways can be expanded with little land acquisition, it is also more environmentally sustainable. It saves on energy and generates less pollution. In densely used corridors, railways could provide an efficient passenger transport system; on the Dhaka-Chittagong corridor, rail transports freight containers much more efficiently than trucks. Currently, BR carries only a small fraction of the containers coming to Chittagong. Better management practices could easily increase this.
For the BR to better support the economy, a major modernization will be needed, calling for the coordinated effort of government, railways management and labour, and donor partners. Major investments will be needed, in tandem with reforms to improve its organizational structure and management practices, supported by a revamped policy environment for railways.