Rail freight container service declining

Staff Reporter :
The freight container service of Bangladesh Railway (BR) is declining. In August 2022, about 4,317 freight containers have been operated from Chattogram Port to Dhaka Kamalapur Inland Container Depot (ICD). But next six months the import container services have been declined by 1,311 while 65 export freight container services increased.
Due to import shortage, within six months, the empty freight container service from Kamalapur ICD to Chattogram has decreased from 1,564 to 770. In the same time, Bangladesh Railway’s East Zone freight container service has declined by 27 per cent.
According to Bangladesh Railway sources, short fall of import has impacted the operating of the railway’s freight container train  
service. Once, freight container train service were operated thrice in daily whereas it is now twice.
In November 2021, Bangladesh Railway had been operated 89 freight trains in up route (chattogram to Dhaka) and 90 in down route (Dhaka to Chattogram).
In December, BR ran 97 trains in up route and 95 in down. Moreover, BR operated 97 trains in up route and 95 in down. And in the last month of the last financial year, the railways ran 94 container trains each up and down.
But in the first 3 months of the current financial year, the number of container trains has decreased to 60 on an average, although the container transport was some what normal.
Mainly due to dollar and liquidity crisis in the country, import trade is stagnant. Due to reluctance of banks to open Letters of Credit (LC) importing is not as per demand. Although railways are able to transport containers as per demand, traders are not able to provide containers. As a result, despite the increase in exports, imports have decreased by about 31 percent in a span of 6 months.
Bangladesh Railway East Zone General Manager (GM) Md Zahangir Hossain said that businessmen have confidence in railways for transporting import goods from Chittagong port and export containers from Kamalapur ICD.
“Once there was a long process in the container transportation of imported goods from Chittagong, but now the railway is providing hundred percent facilities by increasing the engine and manpower”.
But due to reduced import flow in the country, there is not as much container pressure from traders as per capacity, he added.