[🇧🇩] Bangladesh Railway

Saif · Jan 28, 2025

Train staffers call off strike

The strike was withdrawn after the union received assurances that their demands would be addressed

www.thedailystar.net

Train staffers call off strike

After more than 26 hours, railways staffers decided to withdraw their indefinite work abstention from early today.

The strike was withdrawn after the union received assurances that their demands would be addressed.

Mojibur Rahman, general secretary of Bangladesh Railway Running Staff and Sramik Karmachari Union, gave the announcement at around 2:45am today, after a meeting at the residence of the railway adviser on Mintu Road.

His announcement came following assurance of Railways Ministry Adviser Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan to meet their demands.

The meeting was attended by railway running staff leaders, government officials, student leaders, and a BNP leader.

Mojibur said the railway adviser promised to fulfil the staff's demands by tomorrow.

"We are sorry for the public suffering. I urge the running staff to return to their workplaces to operate the trains. The work strike is being called off from now," he said.

Bangladesh Railway Director General Afzal Hossain told The Daily Star that operations of all the trains will start from today as per the existing schedules.

Earlier, after the meeting, adviser to the railways ministry Muhammad Fouzul Kabir Khan assured the staff that their concerns would be addressed.

"I will talk to the finance adviser about the running staff facilities, and I am confident that I will be able to do this with responsibility," he said.

He also said that existing benefits for the staff would remain unchanged.

Earlier, a discussion was held at the residence , attended Railways Ministry Secretary Fahimul Islam, Shamsur Rshman Shimul Biswas, chief coordinator of Jatiyatabadi Sramik Dal, Hasnat Abdullah, convener of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, along with others.

Saif · Jan 29, 2025

Rail passengers must not be held hostage

Railway workers should withdraw strike, return to the negotiation table

www.thedailystar.net

Rail passengers must not be held hostage
Railway workers should withdraw strike, return to the negotiation table

VISUAL: STAR

Government workers undoubtedly have the right to express grievances just like any other professional group, but not at the expense of citizens who they are employed to serve. This message becomes pertinent after thousands of people have been left stranded at railway stations across the country following a strike by the "running staff" that began early Tuesday.

According to a report by this daily, the origins of this protest trace back to the Awami League regime. In November 2021, the finance ministry issued a gazette cancelling extra pay for train drivers, assistant drivers (locomasters, assistant locomasters), guards, and traveling ticket checkers for overtime work. Previously, they also received pension benefits based on their extra pay. The AL government backtracked from this decision in 2022 in the face of protests, but the gazette was not officially revoked.

Moreover, rail workers recruited in these positions since 2022 were denied these benefits in their appointment letters. While the new recruits accepted these terms, they went on work abstention last December, demanding equal benefits.

We believe the government can, and should, promptly address this issue by evaluating the merit of workers' demands. It has a responsibility to ensure that its employees at any level are properly remunerated. That said, the employees also have a duty to serve people and leave room for negotiation—they cannot just hold citizens hostage with a nationwide strike.

In response, the finance ministry issued a circular on January 23 stating that new recruits' overtime pay could be 100 percent of their normal work hours but could not exceed their basic salary. However, the circular did not say anything about retirement benefits. Consequently, rail drivers and support staff have gone on strike, demanding the cancellation of the 2021 gazette and equal overtime and retirement benefits for all workers, regardless of their recruitment year.

We believe the government can, and should, promptly address this issue by evaluating the merit of workers' demands. It has a responsibility to ensure that its employees at any level are properly remunerated. That said, the employees also have a duty to serve people and leave room for negotiation—they cannot just hold citizens hostage with a nationwide strike. Unfortunately, in recent months, we have seen similar protests by various groups of government employees that raise questions about their sense of duty. Citizens, who just want to go about their daily lives, cannot seem to catch a break from this stream of protests often blocking roads, intersections, and even essential services like emergency medical care.

We urge the protesting rail workers—whose meeting with the higher officials on Tuesday afternoon ended without any resolution—to withdraw the strike and return to the negotiating table, instead of continuously weaponising public services.

Saif · Mar 17, 2025

Bangladesh railway must tighten its belt

Another exposé of wasteful spending shows the urgency of corrective action

www.thedailystar.net

Bangladesh railway must tighten its belt
Another exposé of wasteful spending shows the urgency of corrective action

VISUAL: STAR

In yet another exposé of corrupt practices under the Awami League government, it has been revealed that Bangladesh Railway spent about Tk 38 crore on two automated train washing plants in 2021, only for them to become nonfunctional within just 20 months. During this time, the plants managed to clean 2,929 trains. Considering the total expenditure on their procurement and installation, it means that each wash cost the government about Tk 1.3 lakh, which is quite unthinkable. For context, only Tk 1,000 or so would have been required for a manual wash. This case, reported by Prothom Alo, serves as a glaring example of how government projects were often wasteful, mismanaged, and riddled with questionable procurement decisions.

The automated washing plants, purchased as part of a railway coach procurement project and set up in late 2021, were meant to modernise train cleaning by saving time and minimising water consumption. Instead, they turned out to be an overpriced failure. Not only did they cease to function in less than two years, but even when operational, they failed to clean train interiors, including toilets, requiring manual labour afterward. The entire endeavour reeks of a plan designed more for inflating project costs and lining the pockets of those involved than for serving the public.

Unfortunately, the railway sector was plagued by such corruption and mismanagement throughout the 15-plus years of Awami League's rule. And unnecessary procurement or excessive spending using various excuses was the hallmark of such ill-conceived projects. For instance, three officials visited the US apparently to "see the effectiveness" of the automated washing plants, one of them retiring soon after the purchase. As part of various projects, four tamping machines—used in track repairs—were also purchased, each at a cost of Tk 15-30 crore. These machines are now mostly non-functional. The plight of the DEMU trains imported from China is also well-known. There have been many such procurements and expenditures that were not needed, or carefully thought through, but were green-lighted anyway only to fulfil the wishes of politically-backed contractors and railway officials, who hardly ever faced justice for such corruption.

This must change. A country with scarce resources cannot afford to waste billions on dysfunctional projects while essential public services struggle for funding. We urge the authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the washing plant fiasco and other such failed initiatives, and hold to account those behind them. Bangladesh Railway, and by extension all public offices, must ensure that all projects and procurements follow strict cost-benefit analyses, and that they are utilised properly to serve the public.

Saif · Mar 30, 2025

BR yet to embark on viability study

The Bangladesh Railway has yet to commence work on a technical-assistance project, approved in 2023, for a feasibility study and preparatory work related to installing a new dual-gauge line parallel to Joydevpur-Iswardi route. Despite its initial completion deadline set for December this year, the

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Dual gauge along Iswardi route
BR yet to embark on viability study
JAHIDUL ISLAM
Published :
Mar 30, 2025 00:26
Updated :
Mar 30, 2025 00:26

The Bangladesh Railway has yet to commence work on a technical-assistance project, approved in 2023, for a feasibility study and preparatory work related to installing a new dual-gauge line parallel to Joydevpur-Iswardi route.

Despite its initial completion deadline set for December this year, the project has seen no significant progress yet.

The Ministry of Railways has submitted a request to the Planning Commission and the Implementation Monitoring and Evaluation Division (IMED) of the Ministry of Planning, seeking an extension of the timeline until June 2027.

The ministry aims to complete the support project by appointing a consultant within this month.

The project, with an estimated budget of Tk 1.67 billion, is receiving financial assistance from Japan, which has pledged Tk 1.23 billion as credit.

Additionally, Japan is expected to finance the main infrastructure development project based on the findings of the feasibility study.

While the extension request does not include a budget hike, experts warn that the delay could escalate costs for the infrastructure project, said Prof Dr Shamsul Hoque, director, Accident Research Institute at BUET.

Until the proposed second rail line is built, according to him, the newly built double-track railway bridge over the Jamuna will lie significantly underutilised.

According to the rail ministry's letter, a proposal for appointing a consultant for the project's detailed design has already been submitted to the Advisory Council on Public Procurement.

Once approved, the project is expected to take two years for completion, followed by three more months for preparing a project completion report.

The ministry has, therefore, proposed extending the deadline to June 2027.

The decision to upgrade the existing Joydevpur-Iswardi railway line into a dual-gauge double-track one was made in 2016 following an initiative to construct a separate railway bridge over the Jamuna.

The objective was to improve rail connectivity between the northern region and the rest of the country, including the capital.

In early 2019, a Tk 142.51-billion project was undertaken with Chinese assistance to construct the dual-gauge double track on the section in question.

However, the timely disbursement of the promised foreign assistance of Tk 87.57 billion would ensure completion of the infrastructure development scheme by December this year.

As of June 2024, Tk 3.96 billion has been spent on the project.

The current fiscal year's Annual Development Programme (ADP) initially allocated Tk 277.7 million for the project, but it was later reduced to Tk 11.7 million in the Revised ADP (RADP).

Following the cancellation of China's loan commitment, the government decided to implement the project with financial assistance from Japan.

As part of this transition, a new feasibility study was initiated to redesign and reassess cost estimates.

Saif · Apr 5, 2025

WB resumes TA project for BR to help it go green

After more than one and a half decades, the World Bank is coming forward with its technical assistance to conduct a feasibility study on greening the operations of Bangladesh Railway (BR), officials said on Saturday. The global lender has recently proposed to provide US$6.0 million in assistance u

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

WB resumes TA project for BR to help it go green
FHM Humayan Kabir
Published :
Apr 05, 2025 23:47
Updated :
Apr 05, 2025 23:47

After more than one and a half decades, the World Bank is coming forward with its technical assistance to conduct a feasibility study on greening the operations of Bangladesh Railway (BR), officials said on Saturday.

The global lender has recently proposed to provide US$6.0 million in assistance under the "Green railway transport project preparation facility" under which a massive green-railway plan would be framed, said a senior official at the Economic Relations Division (ERD).

About one and a half decades ago, the Washington-based lender almost put on hold its support to BR for reasons like failure to bring expected reforms in improving the services, and the Padma Bridge construction scam.

Between 2009 and 2011, it provided around US$40 million as "Bangladesh Railway reform programmatic development policy credit", which was the last financial support to the state entity.

Meanwhile, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), European Investment Bank (EIB), and Korea continued their support to develop the BR.

Insiders say lack of expected outcome from the railway reforms under the WB's last support in 2009 and Padma Bridge construction project scam were the key reasons for the suspension of the support.

In 2012, the World Bank suspended its $1.2 billion loan for the Padma Bridge project in Bangladesh, citing corruption concerns and the government's unsatisfactory response to investigations.

The BR has been a losing concern of the government for a long. Around 60 per cent of BR's operating revenues are from passenger services, followed by freight services with 20 per cent share.

Among the revenues from passenger services, intercity trains are the largest contributor, accounting for some 89 per cent.

Fare of intercity trains is fixed reasonably higher than those of local trains. Bangladesh Railway increased intercity trains and decreased local trains to focus on more revenue-generating segments for commercial-oriented operation.

Under the WB's proposed $6.0 million support, BR would conduct a feasibility study and prepare conceptual designs for making Kamalapur Railway Station and Airport Station multimodal hubs, for the improvement of the Dhaka-Chattogram freight corridor and Chattogram railway workshop and purchasing some locomotives for improving services, targeting elimination of carbon emission, a BR official said.

Based on the feasibility study and conceptual designs under the proposed TA project, the BR would undertake some investment projects for making the Kamalapur and Airport railway stations as multimodal-transport hubs, Dhaka-Chittagong a freight corridor and the proposed other infrastructure development of the BR, he added.

Meanwhile, the Planning Commission completed a Special Project Evaluation Committee meeting and the ERD arranged an inter-ministerial meeting for implementing the project.

As part of the project, there will be a feasibility study on reconstructing the station building yards, including the relocation of the existing operation and maintenance facilities to facilitate the construction of multimodal transport hubs at the Kamlapur and Dhaka Airport stations, said a PC official.

He said: "If we find the TA project viable, we will go for taking up investment projects. The TA and future projects will make BR's operation more green and environment friendly."

Reduction of carbon emission would be the main focus of the WB-supported TA project as well as the future investment projects, the BR official said.

Bilal9 · Apr 18, 2025

Cox's Bazaar iconic Railway Station in Southern Bangladesh, possibly the nicest, newest and most modern railway station in South Asia. Designed and built entirely using local resources.