Dear Editor,
Hope you are doing well and thanks for publishing my previous write-ups
This is an article about "Better late than never". I will be highly honoured if you publish this article. I apprecite your time to read this article.
Thanks
Have a nice time
With Best Regards
Ripan Kumar Biswas
New York, U.S.A
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Better late than never
Ripan Kumar Biswas
It is better to do something late than to never do it at all. It will be a positive movement if the present interim government can implement necessary reforms for Bangladesh Railway as it is in need of urgent reforms.
Talking to the reporters in his office on Sunday, March 16, 2008, the communications secretary Mohammad Mahabubur Rahman told that the government is now considering a donor-funded move to turn the state-run Bangladesh Railway into a public limited company. "The sick service of Bangladesh Railway cannot be revived without turning into a business organization, and that it is likely to be changed into a limited company," he underlined following a monthly meeting of agencies and departments under the communication ministry.
Bangladesh Government signed credit agreements with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank (WB) to support the government's plans to transform Bangladesh Railway into a well-managed, customer-focused organization on February 15, 2007 under the Railway Sector Investment Program (RSIP), a joint initiative of ADB, WB, JBIC (Japan Bank for International Cooperation) which, together with the United Kingdom's Department for International Development (DFID), to develop joint strategies to assist Bangladesh in a more coordinated manner.
Under the Bangladesh's national poverty reduction strategy (2005), ADB's total commitment for RSIP amounts is US$430 million under the Multi-Tranche Financing Facility to support the railway sector development as it is critical for accelerating economic growth and poverty reduction, which remains a formidable challenge in spite of the impressive socio-economic progress over the recent years. RSIP entails a total of US$924.5 million, of which besides ADB's commitment, WB will provide US$250 million, US$100 million from JBIC, and with the balance provided by the Government of Bangladesh.
To restructure Bangladesh railway into a 'lines of business' organization, DFID will provide technical assistance to the Planning Commission on wider sector governance issues, including the preparation of a 20 year Railway Development Master Plan. The multi-year, multi-donor railway sector reforms program will be used to support Bangladesh Railway's priority investments, to support Government efforts to make institutional and governance improvements in Bangladesh Railways, as well as to improve financial management and human resource management, and to increase operational efficiency.
Besides transform it into a modern transport sector comparable at least to the neighboring countries, Bangladesh signed an "Intergovernmental Agreement on the Trans-Asian Railway Network" on Friday, November 9, 2007 at the UN Headquarters in New York to create a transcontinental railway network across Europe and Asia by which Bangladesh will enable to expand its rail communications with other Asian countries, and subsequently with Europe. But with archaic infrastructure, Bangladesh Railway will not be able to move even a single kilometer.
So far, the failure of the policymakers concerned to expand, improve, and modernize Bangladesh Railway has not only deprived the government of its large revenue, it has also denied the public of the service of this comfortable and hugely popular mode of service. Historically, the railway was built by the British colonial administration in 1884, running between Kolkata (India) and Khulna (Bangladesh). But since the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947, or even in pre-Bangladesh days, or Pakistan times, this sector has suffered from gross neglect by policymakers and mismanagement by the railway authorities.
Although Bangladesh Railway is a principle transportation agency of the country regarding safest and cheapest mode of transport, but its passengers has dwindled because of the improvement in other areas of surface transport in Bangladesh. Presently it covers a length of 2,855 route kilometers employing a total of 34,168 regular employees while Bangladesh has more than 20,000 kilometers of paved highway. Before independence, around 70% of the travelers and 43% of goods were handled by the railway, but now 8% of the population uses the service regularly. In addition, during the last fiscal year, the railway's annual income was 4,660mn taka, while its expenditure was 9,750mn taka.
Although according to the agreement with ADB, Bangladesh Railway director general Md Belayet Hossain made it very clear that the railway would be a government-owned corporative entity like recently transformed Biman Bangladesh Airlines Ltd, but there would be a much more campaign against it by the trade unions and others as it happened before.
There are so many government organizations in the public sector which may have bigger budget but are not as big as Railway that have huge property and massive infrastructure. Influential quarters including railway employees and different trade unions leaders are grabbing railway property frequently. Communication minister of the immediate past government Barrister Nazmul Huda had exercised influence to bend rules for leasing 4.16 acre land of Bangladesh Railway in the capital without any tender process for constructing a five-star hotel.
Apart from occasional addition of imported coaches, the significant upload in Bangladesh Railway was the road-rail bridge at Banga Bandhu Bridge, opened in 1998 to connect the previously isolated east and west rail networks. Fortunately Bangladesh Railways used optical fiber, giving it a modern digital system, with more capacity than it could use. The airwaves of the growing mobile telecommunication in Bangladesh are now using glass fiber buried alongside the railway tracks, by which railway is earning extra revenue.
According to the last decision, the friendship train between India and Bangladesh, called Maitree Express linking Kolkata and Dhaka will commence its run from the Bengali New Year Day April 14, 2008. Bangladesh Railway is also expecting to expand its rail communications with other Asian countries, and subsequently with Europe in the near future trough Trans-Asian Railway Network.
In the coming future, to transform Bangladesh Railway into a well-managed, customer-focused organization and to use maximum resources, its manpower should trained according to strict professional criteria rather than eliminate them and more people should be recruited if need be.
The reform proposal should be started and completed sooner than the projected timeframe.
March 20, 2008, New York
Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York
__._,_.___
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
__,_._,___