Tk 23cr loss
The national flag flew half-mast at Sirajganj district BNP office yesterday following the death of six attendees of a party rally in Sirajganj on Monday. Undermining the dignity of the national flag is a punishable offence under Bangladesh National Anthem, Flag and Emblem Order, 1972. Photo: Abdul Kuddus
Bangladesh Railway has already incurred a loss of at least Tk 23 crore due to the burning of intercity train Drutajan Express in Sirajganj on Monday, and it will have to count an additional Tk 46 lakh as revenue lost for each month the service will remain suspended, said railway officials.
More than 1,000 travellers will suffer daily due to the rail communication disruption between the capital and northern district Dinajpur.
Now travellers to Dhaka from Dinajpur either have to burden the remaining lone intercity train Ekota Express on the route, or they must run to neighbouring Nilphamari district's Syedpur for catching Nil Sagar Express, unless they are willing to pay for costlier bus fares.
Bholanath Banerjee, 75, who is the president of Dinajpur chapter of the Human Rights Congress for Bangladeshi Minorities, told The Daily Star yesterday that he travels to Dhaka for treatment and official purposes quite often, and it was very easy for him to travel on Drutajan Express.
"Now I will face problems collecting train tickets, or I will have to travel by bus which will not be as comfortable for me," he said.
A mob of BNP activists set ablaze Drutajan Express after it had ploughed through a section of a party rally that had spilled on to the railway tracks at Sayedabad of Sirajganj killing six people.
The railway officials said the train service was popular among travellers, and the railway authority was also earning more than Tk 1.5 lakh on an average from transporting 1,043 passengers daily.
The officials could not say when they will be able to resume the service.
Bangladesh Railway's zone west authorities made the primary estimate of the losses.
The service was so popular for its cheaper fares that the train used to be 100 percent occupied daily on its way to Dhaka from Dinajpur in mornings, and used to have 68 percent occupancy on its way back at nights, said Abdul Awal Bhuiyan, chief commercial manager of the railway's zone west.
The service was introduced in 2005 responding to local demands, and had the official capacity of transporting 529 passengers during days, and 514 during nights due to conversion of some seats into sleeper berths in air-conditioned coaches.
"We primarily assessed if the burnt coaches are found repairable then the loss will stand at twenty three crore taka at least as all eleven coaches were burnt, which were costly and nicely decorated," said Anhar Mahmud, general manager of the zone.
"If the coaches are not found at repairable state then the loss might be around thirty four crore taka, as the market prices for each of those ranges between three crore taka, and three and a half crore taka."
He added that the engine of the train was found repairable but will cost Tk 30 lakh to Tk 40 lakh.
"The steel structures of coaches were badly deformed due to the heat from the fire and we need to examine those at Sayedpur railway workshop to determine whether they are repairable," Anhar said.
The primary assessment was made after the zonal railway chief along with a five-member investigation committee of the railway formed under the leadership of Zonal Chief Engineer M Amjad Hossain visited the place of accident yesterday morning, Anhar added.
The team was asked to submit a report in three days after properly identifying the causes of the accident, the persons responsible, and after assessing accurately the losses, he said.
Other members of the probe team are Chief Commercial Manager Abdul Awal Bhuiyan, Chief Mechanical Engineer Dulal Kumar Roy, Chief Signal and Telecommunication Engineer Anwarul Haque, and Acting Chief Medical Officer Dr Mokhlesur Rahman, all of whom are of the zone west.
M Amjad Hossain said in the primary investigation they did not find any railway staff's culpability in the accident.
"The railway was not informed about the rally, and sudden unexpected presence of people on the tracks was mainly the cause of the accident," he said adding, "We need time to talk to witnesses and examine evidence before reaching a conclusion."
He said, "Trains have no mechanism for making sudden stops unless anyone informs the driver beforehand about the need for it, or of any obstacle on the railway tracks. In cases of such prior information or bad weather, the trains are usually run with constant watch over the tracks."
"The rally organisers did not inform the railway of any possible obstacle on the tracks beforehand," he noted adding that three trains were scheduled to pass through the spot between 3:00pm and 6:00pm on Monday.
The train was running at 62 kilometres per hour at the time of the accident, and at that speed a train needs at least 440 yards to come to a stop, so the driver needs to be made aware beforehand, he said.
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