Brisk trade in a danger zone

The makeshift shops on the rail tracks at Jurain crossing. Vendors pull down the hoods when a train approaches and put them in places after the train passes off.Photo: STAR

As a cargo train announced its arrival at the Jurain rail crossing with its ear-piercing horn, it sparked a wave of activities across one and a half kilometres of rail tracks ahead of it.
Over 200 vendors rolled their goods off the muddy, rusting tracks. The merchants dismantled the overhead polythene hoods, packed half their shops in a safe corner and waited for the train to pass. Anxious crowd of shoppers hustled to safer ground.
After the train passed the area, the hawkers reassembled their overhead hoods, rolled out the goods on the tracks and resumed haggling with their customers. The whole market was back as if nothing happened.
This is an everyday scene at Jurain Railgate Market where around 600 hawkers are operating their business on the rail tracks, exposing hundreds of customers to danger.
These open shops' awkward location around the rail tracks barely leaves any room for passing trains and the customers are compelled to walk on the tracks.
During a visit to the market, this correspondent had a rough time making his way around the market thanks to the heavy foot traffic of shoppers on the tracks.
This correspondent approached a customer who was seen haggling with a peddler standing on the rail tracks. Shrugging off the possible danger, he said: "Yes, I know that the train can arrive at any moment. What can I do? I have to shop here after all."
A security officer was seen alerting the people flocking over the rail tracks about the approaching train.
"Accidents happen sometimes, but they are not major. Sometimes a shopper would bump in the railway track or mud and hurt himself. Sometimes some products that were too close to the tracks would get thrashed," said Munir, the security officer. "But other than that no major accidents have occurred here as far as I can remember."
However, some shopkeepers told this correspondent that there have been isolated incidents of accidents on the rail tracks.
"Accidents take place quite often," said Moktar Hossain, a vendor who was seen selling vegetables beside the tracks. "One or two people even died in the past year or two. But the authorities would not do anything until something really bad happens," he added.
Almost all the shops operating on the railroad tracks are illegally occupying the land owned by the Bangladesh Railway (BR).
When asked about the legitimacy of the position of his shop, Golam Hossain, an elderly trader told this correspondent: "We just sell our goods and pay the rents. Legal issues are best left to the shop owners, not the poor traders," he said.
According to locals, influential people control most of land margin at the rail tracks and force the helpless vendors pay rental charges. "Even the floating peddlers have to pay an amount of toll to the patrol police to hawk their goods," said a vendor.
Locals alleged that one Md Solaiman controls a large portion of the floating market collecting around Tk 10 lakh as toll each month. Also, Md Alamgir and Abdur Rahim, two influential members of local traders' association, control other parts of the market.
The toll rates depend on the size of the shop. For a big size shop the association charges Tk 50 to 60 a day. For smaller shops, the rate is around Tk 30. Besides, each of the shop-owners allegedly pays Tk 10 to 20 to the police every day.
"There have been many protests against this. But these people are really influential. They seem to have contacts with higher authorities," said a shop owner. "The occasional steps taken by the authorities turn out to be nothing but eyewash.”
Officials at the Shyampur Police Station blamed the vast slum area and floating population living in Shyampur and the adjoining area for the futility of their efforts. "Things would not be much different unless all the floating population illegally living in that area are evicted," the official added.
Sources at Bangladesh Railway said they do not have any immediate plans regarding this matter. "We rely on the police to rid the lands of illegal occupants and I heard they raid the kitchen markets quite often," said an official requesting anonymity.
"Dhaka City Corporation should try and regulate the conducts in these kitchen markets to solve the problem completely," he added.