Trains move slow
Our capital city is almost in the middle of the country. Other important cities are not more than 500km from Dhaka city. So, it is very easy to provide a high quality transportation system either by railway or highway. But unfortunately we are far behind other countries in this respect. My focus is on railway. Railway can be a very profitable sector for government. Rail journey is much more comfortable and safer than any other mode of transport. It can be a first choice of travel and carrying goods. It is unclear to me that even now we are not able to provide a good railway system throughout the country. Last month I travelled from Dhaka to Brahmanbaria by "Mohanagar Provati”. It took two(2) hours to reach the place. Distance was 142 km. i.e. it travelled 70 km /hr. Cleanliness and other services of this train is praiseworthy. But what about other routes? My home town is Jamalpur. There are four inter-city and two commuter trains on this route. Distance from Dhaka to Jamalpur is 177km. But it takes six hours to reach at an average speed of 30km/hr! We want to get rid of this nightmare. People on this route are not travelling free of cost. They are also paying. They also have important works. They also want to reach home early. We want at least 70-80km/hr train service. It is not an impossible task. The easy solution is to construct double-line from Dhaka to other mega cities. Proper maintenance is also required. Obviously, providing double-line is much more economical than constructing elevated highways, flyovers, bridges, underground or magnetic trains.
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