Railway to add 100 extra coaches during Eid instead of planned 200

The Bangladesh Railway has decreased the number of extra coaches to half for Eid-ul-Fitr due to manpower and budget crisis in railway repair workshops, bringing down the number of additional coaches to 100 from the planned 200. 

Every year, the railway authorities provide 200 coaches – 100 for the East zone and 100 for the West zone – but this year, the Bangladesh Railway engineering department will be able to provide only 50 coaches for each zone, said officers at Bangladesh Railway's transport and marketing division.

Even though the authorities have projected a huge rush of homebound people during this Eid, as many people could not go to their hometown for the last two years due to Covid-19, further coach additions were not possible.

The Bangladesh Railway workshop in Syedpur, where rail coaches are repaired, was renovated under a project at a few hundred crores of taka a couple of years ago. Though its capacity has been increased, it cannot work in full swing due to repair equipment crisis and inadequate budget.

There are only 732 staff in the Bangladesh Railway engineering division in Syedpur against 2,900 posts. Similarly, in Chattogram's Pahartoli, the number of current staff is only 980 against 2,225 posts.

Sources at Bangladesh Railway workshops said the Syedpur workshop has received only Tk34 lakh whereas the budget for repairing coaches for Eid was Tk1.3 crore. In the Pahartoli workshop too, the budget was Tk40 crore but only Tk10.5 crore has been provided.

Due to an inadequate budget, it was not possible to hire the extra manpower required to repair more coaches.

Regarding the budget, Bangladesh Railway Additional Director General (Finance) Md Anisur Rahman said that the Ministry of Finance provides money for all the Bangladesh Railway projects. The Bangladesh Railway or its divisions ask for a budget based on their needs but the finance ministry determines and allocates the budget as per its capacity. Even if the budget allocation is inadequate, the Bangladesh Railway has nothing to do with it.

According to the transport department of railway, new coaches will be added to the six intercity trains in the western zone before Eid. In addition, the rest of the trains will carry passengers according to the standard composition. 

However, there is a possibility of launching a pair of trains on the Khulna-Dhaka route on the occasion of Eid in the western zone.

Meanwhile, considering the demand for Eid passengers, east zone authorities have planned to launch five pairs of trains – two pairs on the Chattogram-Chandpur-Chattogram route, one pair on the Dhaka-Dewanganj-Dhaka route, one pair on the Bhairab Bazar-Kishoreganj-Bhairab Bazar route and one pair on Mymensingh-Kishoreganj-Mymensingh route.

On the occasion of Eid, Bangladesh Railway has the highest number of passengers on the Dhaka-Chattogram route. 

Though the demand for tickets is highest on this route, only two coaches will be added to four pairs of trains, which is very inadequate compared to the demand.