Risky highways force rly to run trains with extra carriages [ Tritiyo Matra News ]

Risky highways force rly to run trains with extra carriages

Local June 09, 2018

Bangladesh Railway is struggling to manage the rush of passengers as many people, driven away by the bad condition of potholed highways and roads with ongoing construction works, are turning to train services ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
This extra pressure has prompted the railway authorities to run different intercity trains with extra carriages to cope with increased number of passengers, officials have said.
In recent years, the number of train passengers has increased as many find journey by road risky for lack of proper maintenance and repairs.
Already blamed for poor and insufficient services, railway is now struggling to meet the increased demands for train tickets that multiplied ahead of Eid likely to be celebrated on June 16.
Since November last year, BR has been running some of its major intercity trains, especially on the country’s northern and south-western routes, with extra carriages from other trains.
Recently railway also ran intercity trains on Dhaka-Chittagong route with extra carriages following traffic gridlock on Dhaka-Chittagong highway in Feni.
Pressure of passengers will increase even further during the upcoming Eid.
In February this year, a total of 74 lakh passengers travelled by trains which rose to 76 lakh in March and 81 lakh in April, said BR additional director general (operation) Md Miajahan.
In 2015-16 fiscal, railway carried 7.05 crore passengers which increased to 7.78 crore in 2016-17 fiscal and 7.5 crore passengers in 2017-18 fiscal till April which would reach 9 crore, he added.
Huge tailbacks have now become a regular incident on Dhaka-Tangail, Dhaka-Mymensingh, Dhaka-Chittagong and Jessore-Khulna national highways with numerous potholes and ongoing development works, downpour aggravating the situation.
Md Miajahan said from November 2017 they added
extra coaches to trains on northern and south-western routes following extra demand for train tickets as construction work was ongoing to turn the Dhaka-Tangail-Bangabandhu Jamuna Bridge highway into four-lane highway.
The extra coaches were taken from trains on other routes, he said.
As demands for train tickets increased, 17 extra coaches were added to seven intercity trains on these routes since January this year, he continued.
The trains are the Drutojan and the Ekota expresses on Dhaka-Dinajpur, the Nilsagar express on Dhaka-Nilphamari, the Chitra express on Dhaka-Khulna, the Silk City, the Padma and the Dhumketu express on Dhaka-Rajshahi routes.
‘We will run trains with extra carriages on these routes as long as there is demand for tickets,’ Miajahan said.
In May this year, huge traffic gridlocks in Feni on both sides of the Dhaka-Chittagong national highway were seen due to the under-construction overpass at Fatehpur railway crossing.
In the same month, railway added eight coaches to each of the Subarna, Mohanagar Provati and Goduli, Shonar Bangla and Turna Nishitha expresses on Dhaka-Chittagong route to meet increased demand for tickets.
Later in the month, they had to add a total of 54 coaches, the officer added.
Roads and Highways Department’s Annual Maintenance and Rehabilitation Needs Report 2018-19 shows that at present about 26 per cent national and regional highways and district roads are in a poor to very bad conditions, especially in Rajshahi, Khulna and Dhaka zones.