Development of railways in Bangladesh

Md. Arafat Rahman :
In the middle of the nineteenth century, with the help of the British government, initial thinking and planning started in England to set up railways in the colonial Bengal. The main purpose of such a plan was to consider commercial interests, including political, geographical and strategic facilities. The Railway introduced in the nineteenth century and started a widespread revolution in communication. India’s Viceroy Lord Dalhousie sent several proposals to start the railway construction work in India.
However, it took several years to get the necessary approval and to implement the contract with the government. In the meantime, the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Company started constructing a 33 km long rail line from Mumbai. This was the first railway journey of British India. In 1852, it was proposed to set up a railway line from Sundarbans to Dhaka on the east of the Ganges.
To meet the growing demand of jute worldwide, the main jute producing area was needed to supply jute from Dhaka and Mymensingh to Kolkata port. In 1885, a 144 km long meter gauge rail line was set up from Mymensingh to Dhaka to Narayanganj, known as Dhaka State Railway, to bring the raw jute to Kolkata. It was gradually extended from Mymensingh to Jamalpur to Jagannathganj Ghat and subsequently up to Bahadurabad Ghat.
On the implementation of the Hardinge Bridge project on Padma in the 1914, the meter gauge line was converted into a broad gauge line up to Shantahar. The two lane Hardinge Bridge Rail was inaugurated on March 4, 1915. A railway bridge was inaugurated on the Meghna river on 6 December 1937 for direct contact of Dhaka with Chittagong. After the partition of India, East Pakistan inherited 2,606.59 km of railway and was known as the Eastern Bengal Railway (EBR). There was no factory in East Pakistan to repair the Broad gauge rail engine.
However, the East Pakistan Railway got a meter gauge rail factory at Syedpur. During the War of Independence the railway was completely destroyed. As a result, a lot of money spends to repair them in many years. Work of Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge began in 1994. The four -lane road and one lane dual gauge railway bridge have electrical connection, gas lines and telephone lines. The bridge was inaugurated on June 23, 1998. In order to coherent the railway gauge system, a 155 km dual gauge line was constructed from the east end of the Jamuna Bridge to Joydevpur.
Railway security system is fairly better than other vehicles in Bangladesh. The system has 30 drop-insert and multiplexing stations. As a means of check and balance, the Government Inspector of Railways (GIR), the head of the safety wing, is charged with the duties of inspecting all sections of railways to determine their fitness for the public carriage of passengers, examine track, bridges, signaling systems and rolling stock, inquire into causes of any accident and perform other related duties as imposed on him by the Railway Act, 1890 and subsequent orders.
Bangladesh Railway has 6 workshops, 1 at Saidpur, 2 at Pahartali, 2 at Parbatipur, and 1 at Dhaka. The workshop at Saidpur is the largest and well equipped for undertaking heavy repairs of carriages and wagons of both gauges and also for the purposes of assembly cum construction of carriages and wagons, on a limited scale. Of the 2 workshops at Pahartali, one is for repairs and assembly of metre gauge carriage and wagons and the other is for repair of metre gauge diesel electric locomotives.
For heavy repair and maintenance of increased number of diesel locomotives, a Central Diesel Workshop was set up at Parbatipur in 1992. It has become the main workshop for all major repairs and overhauls of locomotives. Modern methods of management of stores and accounting have been introduced in this central diesel workshop. The second workshop at Parbatipur is meant for normal repairs of broad gauge diesel locomotives. The workshop at Dhaka is for normal repairs and maintenance of metre gauge diesel locomotives.
For relatively fast and good services, the roads are more prominent than the railway transport due to easy transport from warehouse to warehouse. Railways are facing a very difficult competition for carrying valuable goods. Due to the lack of industrialization process in other regions of the country, the transportation of freight trains from Chittagong port is one -sided and in most cases the freight returns empty at the destination. On the other hand, Bangladesh Railways works as part of the national transport media, such as food grains, fertilizers, jute, cement, coal, iron, steel, stone, petroleum, salt, sugar, etc., to deliver to remote areas.
Bangladesh Railway is playing the largest role in the employment. All the officials of Bangladesh Railway and the operating staff have to receive preliminary training and higher training from the Railway Training Academy in Chattogram to enhance and skills in their respective fields. Initialization of commercial services in the current renovation process in the railway sector continues. This will achieve more financial development of the railway. Other activities that may be included in the renovation process include the addition of better technology, setting up new railways, reducing the number of employees, shutting down losing lines and ensuring proper use of land under the Railway Authority.

(The writer is Asst. Officer, Career & Professional Development Services Department, Southeast University).