Severe traffic jam on highways forces people to turn to rails
Munima Sultana | Saturday, 19 March 2011
Munima Sultana
Passengers are now increasingly turning to railway to reach their destinations during extended holidays to avoid journey by roads and highways. This is mostly because of the horrific traffic jams that keep thousands of travellers stranded on the highways for hours while journeying to their targeted destinations. Since December last, the country has experienced three such vacations close or next to weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday when the BR handled more than 30,000 passengers in its major city-based train services. Last year, people witnessed such long holidays at least eight times including those during the two Eid occasions. In 2011, there are another 10 holidays tagged with weekends. "People are getting increasingly dependent on the trains to travel on the weekly holidays which are tagged with other government holidays to avoid traffic jam on the highways," said Bangladesh Railway (BR) Director General TA Chowdhury. Officials said the BR has a capacity of handling around 15,000 passengers a day but it has to manage more than 30,000 passengers on the special occasions. "We fall in deep trouble when these occasions come. We really find it hard to manage the increasing number of passengers with the limited train services and facilities," said a senior official. The Bangladesh Railway, one of the biggest loss making government agencies, operates train services between almost all major cities. But it could not improve the services to accommodate the number of passengers which has been increasing at the rate of 6.0 per cent due to shortage of trains and deplorable condition of lines. The BR operates 247 trains daily through which it carried 640 million passengers in 2009 to and from the cities of Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna, Dinajpur and Syedpur. Centring these cities, there are more inter-district and thana-level services. But the officials said the number of trains often goes down due to dearth of locomotives. A substantial number of locomotives go out of operation mainly because of their dilapidated conditions. Recently, many locomotives have been declared dead including those which were damaged in road accidents. The officials said despite the passengers' dependence on trains, the BR is yet to make any profit by selling tickets as it cannot increase the number of trains on the special occasions. "Extra trains can only be managed during the two Eid holidays to help the homebound people to enjoy the two great festivals," said an official. He said it is not possible for the BR to manage extra trains or bogies to meet the high demand from passengers at other times with the existing facilities. The DG said negligence in the past has crippled the country's cheapest mode of transport, but the present government is trying hard to make it better. "We expect that 49 locomotives and more than 500 coaches will be added to the present service next year. When these will be introduced, we will be able to provide better service to the passengers," he said.
Passengers are now increasingly turning to railway to reach their destinations during extended holidays to avoid journey by roads and highways. This is mostly because of the horrific traffic jams that keep thousands of travellers stranded on the highways for hours while journeying to their targeted destinations. Since December last, the country has experienced three such vacations close or next to weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday when the BR handled more than 30,000 passengers in its major city-based train services. Last year, people witnessed such long holidays at least eight times including those during the two Eid occasions. In 2011, there are another 10 holidays tagged with weekends. "People are getting increasingly dependent on the trains to travel on the weekly holidays which are tagged with other government holidays to avoid traffic jam on the highways," said Bangladesh Railway (BR) Director General TA Chowdhury. Officials said the BR has a capacity of handling around 15,000 passengers a day but it has to manage more than 30,000 passengers on the special occasions. "We fall in deep trouble when these occasions come. We really find it hard to manage the increasing number of passengers with the limited train services and facilities," said a senior official. The Bangladesh Railway, one of the biggest loss making government agencies, operates train services between almost all major cities. But it could not improve the services to accommodate the number of passengers which has been increasing at the rate of 6.0 per cent due to shortage of trains and deplorable condition of lines. The BR operates 247 trains daily through which it carried 640 million passengers in 2009 to and from the cities of Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet, Rajshahi, Khulna, Dinajpur and Syedpur. Centring these cities, there are more inter-district and thana-level services. But the officials said the number of trains often goes down due to dearth of locomotives. A substantial number of locomotives go out of operation mainly because of their dilapidated conditions. Recently, many locomotives have been declared dead including those which were damaged in road accidents. The officials said despite the passengers' dependence on trains, the BR is yet to make any profit by selling tickets as it cannot increase the number of trains on the special occasions. "Extra trains can only be managed during the two Eid holidays to help the homebound people to enjoy the two great festivals," said an official. He said it is not possible for the BR to manage extra trains or bogies to meet the high demand from passengers at other times with the existing facilities. The DG said negligence in the past has crippled the country's cheapest mode of transport, but the present government is trying hard to make it better. "We expect that 49 locomotives and more than 500 coaches will be added to the present service next year. When these will be introduced, we will be able to provide better service to the passengers," he said.