Editorial
Modernising the railway
Give the sector priority it deserves
Thanks to the new communications minister Obaidul Quader after decades of inertia, a fresh stimulus appears to have been injected into the long-ailing Bangladesh Railway (BR).
Expansion of the fleet and higher level of punctuality being claimed are a good augury. But compared to the railway's vast potential as bulk carrier of passengers and goods and given its development in neighbouring countries this is a mere drop in the ocean.
The minister has a long way to go.
To really bring the railway at par with modern times, the BR is in need of a complete overhaul in terms of recruitment of adequately trained manpower, extension of network, efficient maintenance, quality service and introduction of modern equipment and rolling stock.
Handicapped by faulty ticketing, poor maintenance of amenities, pilferage and grabbing of its assets, delayed arrivals and departures, the railway has been limping along.
Little wonder, the losses incurred by railway have jumped from Tk 500 million in 1985 to a whopping TK 7500 million by 2010.
Thankfully, a cap on recruitment that was applied some 27 years ago is being lifted. It is as well that this is done, since, some 146 railway stations that were shut down need to be reopened.
We would like to make an especial point about recruitment which has hitherto been shot through with corruption.
Recruitment policy should be strictly geared to induction of qualified personnel into the service based on apolitical consideration of merit, pure and simple.
The state of hopelessness in which the BR has been relegated to will need nothing short of a massive injection of resources in the sector.
While advocating Private-Public-Partnership PPP) as a mode of financing, we would urge necessary budgetary allocation for he railway.
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