BR goes for massive recruitment

"We are trying to complete the recruitment within the quickest possible time as around 24,000 posts remain vacant."

— BR Director General Quamrul Ahsan

Bangladesh Railway has started its biggest recruitment process in recent time as the state-run rail transport agency is running short of manpower, hampering its services seriously.

BR has got the railways ministry's approval to recruit around 7,700 manpower under 17 categories in the first phase, and 295 people have already joined. The recruitment process for 1,451 others is almost completed, said BR sources.

The process for recruiting manpower to several other posts is now at different stages, with written test for 1,086 posts of khalasi (technical assistant) already done, they said.

The railway authorities are recruiting the non-gazetted staffers of grade 13 to 20 -- the major workforce for railway operation -- as per the new recruitment rules approved in November 2020, they added.

The move to increase manpower comes after around five years of suspension of the recruitment process in the absence of recruitment rules.

Currently, BR is running with 50 percent of its approved manpower of 47,637.

Operation of more than 100 stations and 99 trains, mostly locals, cannot resume mainly due to manpower shortage, said officials.

The BR has 361 trains in its fleet to operate on its 3,093km network, but cannot run at least 99 of those mostly for a lack of carriages and manpower, particularly loco-masters and guards.

Moreover, 123 stations remain closed for shortages of station masters and their associates, according to a BR document placed at a workshop in June this year.

"We are trying to complete the recruitment within the quickest possible time as around 2,4000 posts remain vacant," BR Director General Quamrul Ahsan told The Daily Star yesterday.

This is the biggest recruitment in railway in recent time, he said, adding that they would try to fill most of the vacant posts within next year.

According to a recent BR document, 23,178, out of 47,637 posts, remain unoccupied.

BR officials said they recruited around 13,000 staffers between 2010 and 2017, but none of the recruitment was as big as the current one.

The lack of manpower not only forced the authorities to close stations and operate trains, but also delays maintenance and rescue operation after any rail accidents, said a top BR official, wishing anonymity.

Until 2017, BR had been recruiting employees -- grade 10 to 20 -- under Bangladesh Railway Non-Gazetted Service Recruitment Rules-1985 though it was annulled in June 2013 following a High Court verdict, said officials.

The HC declared illegal the seventh constitutional amendment that had legitimised the military rule of Hussain Muhammad Ershad. The 1985 rules were cancelled as they were enacted during Ershad's regime.

Unaware of it, BR continued to recruit employees from June 2013 till 2017, and some 4,000 employees were recruited during this period. Knowing about the order, BR stopped the recruitment process, sources said.

Later, following the direct intervention of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, BR and the railways ministry prepared the new rules that got the final approval in November 2020.

Meanwhile, BR got 47,637-post organogram, but could not start the recruitment till early this year. Sources said BR and the ministry expedited the process after the prime minister's instruction.

BR sources said 54 guards and 241 assistant loco-masters have joined their jobs. The agency also issued appointment letters to 587 for assistant station masters and completed the process of appointing 864 pointsmen.

They added that these four jobs were very vital for railway operation and that's why people were being recruited there first.

A BR official said they received the railways ministry's approval for appointing people to 7,700 posts in 17 categories, but the number might cross 8,000 as many posts would fall vacant before issuing circulars.

However, the recruitment of additional manpower will put more financial burden on BR, which is incurring losses.

BR incurred losses Tk 13,492.70 crore in 12 years between fiscal years 2008-09 and 2019-20, according to BR documents.