Railway East Zone
51 stations closed due to manpower shortage
Once bustling with the commotion of passengers, Jhawtola Rail Station in Chittagong city now bears a desolate atmosphere as Bangladesh Railway shut it down a few years ago mainly due to a severe shortage of manpower. The photo was taken recently. Photo: Prabir Das
Severe shortage of manpower, mainly of station masters, has forced Bangladesh Railway (BR) to shut down 51 railway stations in the eastern zone since fiscal year 2005-2006, when all recruitments got suspended. BR sources said another twelve stations out of 229 are on the verge of closure as BR's aging manpower is slowly going into retirement. The continued and regular closure of the stations is causing a collapse in the train schedules in the zone, they said. Md Omar Faroque, assistant chief operating superintendent at the Traffic Department of the BR (east zone), said the manpower shortage has reached such a critical level that currently an additional twelve stations remain open only eight hours a day. There are 356 station masters in the eastern zone against the requirement of 667, he said. “In the absence of 311 station masters, it is impossible to ensure operation of all railway stations of the zone,†he said. “The bad news is another 31 station masters will go on Post Retirement Leave (PRL) in 2014 and four more in 2015.†The official said the main reason of schedule collapse of the trains is the closed stations. “Although the normal speed of the train is 72 kilometres per hour, the loco-masters have to reduce the speed to 16 kilometres while passing through the closed stations,†Faroque said. “We need to make the stations functional for ensuring smooth movement of the trains plying different routes of the zone.†An official of the Traffic Department of the east zone, preferring anonymity, said due to the closure of the stations, huge resources of the BR, including valuable fixtures, furniture and fittings, are either being stolen or damaged. “People are also boarding some trains, which make stoppages at the closed stations, without purchasing tickets,†he said. Chief Operating Superintendent of the eastern zone of the BR, Mohammad Belal Uddin, said there is no alternative to recruiting manpower for making railway functional. An initiative to recruit 2,572 personnel in 58 categories is underway, said the zone's Chief Personnel Officer Md Gaos Al Munir, and the process will be completed by December 31. “But the recruitment process of station masters has remained suspended since 2006 due to legal tangles,†he added.
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