Bangladesh railway: Losses and poor show continue
Bangladesh Railway continues to make huge losses from its operations allegedly due to poor services, corruption, and a lack of proper management of assets.
The Tk 1,384 crore losses the state-run agency posted for the 2020-21 fiscal year was less than losses incurred in the previous fiscal, but the amount is more than the Tk 1,202.49 crore cost of the ongoing Faridpur-Magura broad gauge rail line project.
Amid the pandemic, the number of railway passengers decreased by 41.44 percent in the last fiscal year compared to the previous FY. However, the amount of goods carried by freight trains rose by 71.39 percent, shows a railways ministry document.
Banking on the income from freight trains, the BR managed to reduce losses by Tk 702.70 crore in 2020-2021 from the Tk 2,086.70 crore it incurred in 2019-2020.
The BR continued the poor show despite the government providing it with increased funding both for operation and development budgets.
The railway now operates 394 passenger and freight trains on its 3,093km network across the country.
Amid such a situation, the railways ministry yesterday held a meeting in the capital's Rail Bhaban, with Railways Secretary Humayun Kabir in the chair, to discuss ways to increase revenue and improve services.
A deputy secretary of the ministry made a presentation on different areas of the BR, including its income and expenditures, and made some recommendations to improve the situation, meeting sources said.
As per the railways ministry document, the BR carried 373 crore passengers in the last FY -- 47.44 percent less than than the previous FY.
The state-run agency carried 637 crore passengers in 2019-20 fiscal year and 927 crore in 2018-19, it said.
The BR carried 0.5445 crore tonnes of goods in the last FY -- 71.39 percent more than the 2019-20 FY (0.3177 crore tonnes).
The government in the last two fiscal years twice suspended operations of public transport, including trains, and directed authorities to operate trains at half capacity to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The railway earned Tk 1,427.70 crore and spent Tk 2,822.29 crore in the last FY.
The transport agency incurred a loss of Tk 2,086.70 crore in the 2019-20 fiscal year, up from Tk 1,751 crore in the previous FY, shows the ministry document.
However, as per the BR Information Book-2020, it made a loss of 2,063.12 crore in 2019-20 fiscal year, up from Tk 1,644.07 crore in the previous FY.
The agency has not made a profit since 2008-09 FY, according to data of the information book. It does not contain any operating income statistics for years between 1971 and 2007.
The presentation paper mentioned that BR can increase its income by operating more freight, container, and commuter trains.
It also said that around 5,000 acres of railway land was grabbed by illegal occupants. If the land can be recovered and used for commercial purposes, the BR can earn crores of taka, but there are no serious attempts to recover the land.
"It would be difficult to cut the railway's loss unless corruption and irregularities are stopped, proper use of assets is ensured, and passenger services are improved," reads the paper.
The BR has been receiving huge investments from successive governments since the Awami League came to power in 2009.
This newspaper could not reach BR Director General Dhirendra Nath Mazumder over the phone for comments as he did not respond to calls and a text message.
Railways Secretary Humayun said yesterday's meeting recommended increasing railway's "management efficiency" and ensuring "full use" of its manpower and infrastructure.
"Keeping the next Eid in mind, we want to increase all our targets by 20 percent. For example, we asked the authorities concerned to make 20 percent more carriage ready than the target set earlier for the current fiscal year," he told The Daily Star last night.
He said they put more emphasis on operating freight trains to increase revenue and asked the officials concerned to talk with stakeholders to improve the service.
The secretary said as there is a huge demand for railway passenger services, they have asked officials to expedite work of the ongoing projects to expand services.
About corruption allegations, Humayun said although the issue was not discussed formally, they asked all officials to work with honesty because the government will not spare anyone involved in graft.
Regarding illegally occupied railway land, he said they asked the authorities to expedite drives to recover land and dispose of cases filed in this connection.
"We have directed the authorities to amend the railway's existing land use policy, if needed, to make it befitting the times," he added.