The derailment of a Khulna-bound train in Gazipur once again brings up to us the poor infrastructural state of Bangladesh Railway. Two carriages along with the locomotive went off the track, killing one and injuring several passengers. Although the precise reasons behind the accident were not instantly known, the committees constituted to go into it should not only pinpoint the human or infrastructural flaws but also fix responsibility for the mishap.
We recall the new communications minister who, having assumed the portfolio of the railway ministry, assured us of breathing new life into this hugely potential communications sector. And we are indeed happy to note that some positive changes have occurred in matters of expanding the fleet and maintaining punctuality in arriving at and departing from stations. But basic infrastructural flaws, shortage of trained manpower and over all corrupt practices have induced a paralysis of this sector.
We have repetitively stressed that railway is the most ideally suited communications system as bulk carriers of passengers and goods across Bangladesh. This is more so because both road and river communications have become increasingly perilous and expensive due to poor maintenance and inflated fares.
For long this sector has received step-motherly treatment. Resultantly, the engines and carriages have worn out; shortage of fleet has persisted; railway stations along with the signaling systems badly needed doing up and be upgraded. Added to these are poor maintenance of amenities, and pilferage and grabbing of its assets. All these have accounted for the huge loss incurred by railway that amounts to nearly TK 7500 million by 2010.
Therefore, we are pinning hope on the communications minister to restore railway to its former glory by ridding it of corrupt elements, retrieving its landed assets from grabbers and providing it with all the necessary support including infrastructural modernisation, increasing manpower and above all, giving it a sense of direction.
With the strike called by CNG drivers commuters are suffering the full brunt of the lack of this fleet of public carrier in the city. Dhaka is one of the few mega-cities in the world that lacks a proper network of public transportation and a practically non-existent taxi fleet. The private bus operators continue to field mini-buses will little headroom and dreadful seating capacity form the backbone of the city commuting. Government run BRTC has recently inducted some modern buses into its fleet, but these are too few in number to cater to a population of some 15 million inhabitants of Dhaka city.
The indefinite strike however cannot be supported for a variety of reasons. How does one justify the demand made for canceling requirement for route permits? Every commercial vehicle regardless of size has specific route permits, so why should it be different for three-wheelers. One may easily ask why drivers refuse to ply the roads on the recalibrated digital meters recently installed as per government decision. Again, one may enquire as to why the bulk of these vehicles refuse to travel to destinations of commuters' choices.
Indeed, this culture of refusing to abide by government regulations on the question of traveling and charging as per meter has become a common phenomenon with all taxi services. The most common answer for refusing to go to a particular destination or extorting undue amounts from hapless commuters is due to lax enforcement by the police. Again when enforcers try to enforce the law, it is the commuter that must pay the price when a particular service is taken offline through a strike. It is time to take some tough decisions for authorities to address this issue head on. A dialogue needs to be initiated immediately with the unions but relevant authorities must show a zero tolerance to law breakers. Only when errant drivers find themselves confronted by a system that cannot be bought off will city dwellers' traveling woes lessen.
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