100 railway cars being restored

Carriage and Wagon repairing workshop of Bangladesh Railway (East Zone) at Pahartali in Chittagong is now vibrant with activities, as workers have been racing against time to restore the old and damaged carriages ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
A total of 100 metre-gauge coaches have been getting repaired at the workshop since the last week of June to put them on service to ease sufferings of home-bound people. The workshop employees are working apparently without any break.
Visiting the workshop yesterday, this correspondent found the repair works are being done in 22 shops including carriage shop, paint shop, wheel shop, welding shop, smithy shop and foundry shop in Pahartali.
“We are trying our best to complete the repairing works within August 14, the last working day before Eid,” said Md Shafiqur Rahman, in-charge of wheel shop. The workers are working very hard, he added.
“We are leaving no stone unturned to complete our work in time,” said Peyar Ahmed, a worker of wheel shop. He pointed out that they were undergoing huge work pressure due to acute shortage of manpower.
According to workshop sources, a total of 55 out of 100 carriages have already been made available for service. The rest will be made ready within August 14.
“Despite various limitations including manpower shortage, we are trying our best to run the activities smoothly in the workshop,” said Md Harun-ar-Rashid, divisional superintendent (DS) of the workshop. “We are facing about 50 percent manpower shortage,” he said.
The railway official also stressed the necessity to retrofit the existing machineries and recruit more manpower for this workshop.
All the restored coaches will be attached with inter-city trains from August 16, said Md Tafazzal Hossain, General Manager (GM) of Bangladesh Railway (East Zone).
Sources said 92 carriages were being repaired under regular maintenance cost of Bangladesh Railway BR while eight carriages are getting refurbishment under the “200 MG and 60 BG Carriage Rehabilitation Project”.