Readers’ Forum

Improving rail services

There had been 231 railway accidents in the country between 2013 and April 2014 of which 157 in the East Zone and 74 in the West Zone; but the division wise statistics were not available. We assume that least accidents took place in the Paksey Division.
The number of accidents, amount of losses, schedule collapse and relegation of service increased after the Bangladesh Railway was divided into two zones in the early nineties although the officers and engineers posted in Paksey, Lalmonirhat, Dhaka, Bhairob Bazaar and Chittagong divisions were rendering better service than the present. The zones should be dismembered immediately.
The expiry of the longevity of most railway engines and railway lines, disappearance of fish plates and fish bolts, absence of skilled hands, negligence to recruit loco masters, station and assistant station masters, reluctance to open closed and suspended railway stations, and above all sheer negligence have pushed Bangladesh Railway to the banks of the pit. We fear total collapse if drastic measures are not taken urgently. Let me remind all that railway jobs are technical ones and without receiving training none can work here. So, if the government delays further, there will be total disastrous.

Khurshida Haque
Dhaka