B’baria Train Accident: Families of 10 victims get financial support

Railways Ministry yesterday provided financial assistance to the victim family members of a train accident in Brahmanbaria in November last year.

Minister Nurul Islam Sujan handed over Tk 1 lakh each to 10 families out of 17 affected ones at Dhaka's Rail Bhaban.

Assistance to the rest of the families will be given through the district administrations as some of them could not attend the programme while some could not yet decide on successors, the minister said.

On November 12, at least 17 people were killed and nearly 80 injured as an intercity train crashed into another at Kasba.

Although the Railways Act-1890 stipulates Tk 10,000 as compensation for death of a passenger in a train accident, the ministry provided the assistance as per its executive order.

Replying to a question in this regard, Miah Jahan, additional director general of BR, said after a major train accident in Tongi in 1989, the then president, through an executive order, sanctioned Tk 1 lakh for each of the deceased family members.

"Following the same executive order, we have been providing Tk 1 lakh to victim families after any major accident as financial assistance. In such cases, we provide assistance following the minister's directives," Jahan said.

The BR official said process to amend the act is ongoing and around five years ago, they had proposed to increase the compensation to Tk 3.5 lakh for each deceased in train accident.

Md Shamsuzzaman, director general of BR, was also present at the event.