The trolley problem: How Bangladesh's airport chaos perfectly mirrors its governance
A missing luggage trolley at Dhaka airport reveals more than an operational failure—it exposes a governance system rich in excuses, poor in accountability, and allergic to fixing the real problem
In what can only be described as a masterclass in unintentional political satire, the airports of Dhaka and Chattogram have gifted the nation a perfect, rolling metaphor for its governance: the humble luggage trolley. Or rather, the lack thereof.
Passengers, weary from international travel, now face a new, home-grown adventure upon landing—a one- to two-hour heroic quest to secure a metal cart on wheels.
The cause? A beautiful cascade of failures, excuses, and symbolic solutions that would make any student of public administration weep with recognition.
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The immediate absurdity: Plenty of trolleys, nowhere to be found
The authorities have been quick to clarify that there is no actual shortage. Group Captain Ragib Samad, in charge of trolley operations at Dhaka airport, would have us believe that with nearly 3,700 trolleys across arrivals and departures, the system is well stocked.
The problem, you see, is the passengers. They are using the trolleys incorrectly—holding on to them for too long while waiting for their luggage at one of the airport's majestic eight baggage belts.
This is the first tenet of our allegory: the problem is never a lack of resources, but the public's inability to use them properly. The state provides; the people mismanage. If only passengers would levitate their luggage, the system would function flawlessly.
The chain of causality: A delicate house of cards
Why is this year so special? Here is where the allegory deepens into pure poetry. The trolley crisis stems from flight congestion. The congestion stems from winter fog. The fog is a problem because the Instrument Landing System (ILS) has been downgraded.
The ILS was downgraded because runway lights were damaged by a Thai Airways aircraft in October. The lights cannot be fixed quickly because the parts must be imported through a tender process.
Behold the majestic, multi-layered Chain of Excuses. A single event months ago triggers a domino effect, with each agency pointing to the preceding link. The Civil Aviation Authority is not responsible for trolleys; it is responsible for broken lights.
The trolley operators are not responsible for crowds; they are responsible for redistributing trolleys from Chattogram. No one is to blame, yet everyone is inconvenienced.
The solutions: Symbolic and misplaced
Faced with a systemic breakdown, what is the official response? A burst of heroic, yet utterly insufficient, activity.
- Deploying 100 extra trolleys from Chattogram to Dhaka (a rounding error compared to the existing 3,700)
- Repairing trolleys that were under maintenance
These are the "visible gestures" of governance—actions that can be reported to the press to demonstrate proactive resolve, while the root causes (the broken landing system, the inadequate baggage infrastructure) languish in tender-process purgatory. It is not about solving the problem; it is about being seen to address the symptom.
The grand philosophical trolley problem
And so we arrive at the heart of the allegory. The classical "trolley problem" in philosophy presents a moral dilemma: do you pull a lever to divert a runaway trolley, sacrificing one to save five?
Bangladesh's trolley problem is far more nuanced. Here, the trolleys are not running at all. The levers of state machinery—tenders, procedures, departmental jurisdictions—are so stiff from disuse that by the time anyone decides to pull one, a dozen flights have already diverted to Kolkata and 500 passengers are sleeping on their suitcases.
The real dilemma is not about choosing who to save. It is about whether to fix the single point of failure in the system (the landing lights) or to continue hiring more people to push stranded trolleys around. Our governance model, as illustrated so vividly in the arrivals hall, consistently chooses the latter.
An allegory on wheels
Until the end of January, passengers will suffer. Authorities will cite fog, flights, and the public's lack of trolley-return etiquette. A thousand small gestures will be made, press releases issued, and committees formed.
The luggage trolley crisis is not merely an operational failure; it is a national parable. It teaches us that a system can be fully stocked with hardware yet starved of efficient coordination and proactive maintenance.
It shows how accountability can be diffused across so many agencies that it evaporates entirely. And it proves that the most hilarious, frustrating op-ed material is not written by satirists—it is lived daily by citizens, one delayed flight and one missing trolley at a time.
The trolleys have left the building. The allegory, however, is here to stay.
Zakir Kibria is a Bangladeshi writer, policy analyst and entrepreneur based in Kathmandu, Nepal. His email address is zk@krishikaaj.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.
