2.4 Bangladesh Railway Assessment Overview Bangladesh Railway at a Glance Development Progress of BR Performance and Constraints of BR Security Arrangements of BR International Corridors Leading to Bangladesh Bangladesh Railway Assessment Page 1 Page 2 Overview Bangladesh Railway (BR), the state-run transportation agency of the country, who is responsible for operating and maintenance of 2877.10 Km railway line. For smooth operations the Railway network is divided into 2 regions, Eastern and Western. Bangladesh Railway (BR) operates and maintains the entire railway network of the country. BR is headed by the Directorate General of Bangladesh Railway under the Ministry of Railways along with Bangladesh Railway Authority (BRA) which works for policy guidance of BR. To upgrade the services of BR, Railway ministry has newly been established as an independent ministry in 2011 separating it from previous Ministry of Communications. Railway connected almost all important places of 44 civil districts and plays important role in the economy. It operates Total 348 Passenger trains and 6 Container trains & 20-25 goods trains daily. Besides, it operates the largest Inland Container Depot with capacity of 90,000 TEUs. BR network was initially North-South connection based because of riverine land script. Establishment of new East-West connections and missing links and revival of old and abandon tracks are the key areas of interventions. Rehabilitation of existing railway lines, modernization of signaling system and acquisition of new rolling stocks to improve the performance and to cop up with the upcoming new situation linking the network with the Trans Asian Railway are the important challenges in front of BR. Apart from these, reducing operational bottlenecks by double tracking all major railway corridors and harmonization of railway tracks by phases, institutional reform, pragmatic role in easing traffic congestion by improving commuter train service in Dhaka and Chattogram cities, proper use of land and other assets, introducing more Public Private Partnership (PPP) in railway sub-sector are important challenges in front of BR. Key features of BR are the coexistence of several gauges, Broad gauge, Meter gauge and Dual gauge, and the separation of the system by the Jamuna River (Brahmaputra) into a Western and Eastern Zone of operations with only one bridge, the 2003 Jamuna Bridge, connecting the two zones. Bangladesh Railway operates international, inter-city and suburban rail systems on its multi-gauge network. It also owns coach production facilities. BR is divided into two zones, East & West, each under control of a general manager who is accountable to the Director General of Bangladesh Railway. The two zones have their separate departments for operations, maintenance, and finances. Each zone is divided into two divisions that contain departments of HR, Transportation, Commercial, Finance Mechanical, Way and Works Signaling & Telecommunication, Electrical, Medical, etc. Each zone also has its Workshop Divisions, located at Pahartali and Saidpur, respectively. A locomotive workshop is located at Parbatipur for Broad and Meter gauge locomotives. BR manages its own Railway Training Academy. A separate Directorate under the Ministry of Railways is charged to inspect and ensure different works of BR in relation to safety and Security. For further details please follow https://railway.portal.gov.bd/. Bangladesh Railway at a Glance Total Length Railway Line (km) 2,877.10 Total stations 460 Broad Gauge (km) 659.33 Total locomotives 286 Meter Gauge (km) 1,808.05 Total coaches 1507 Dual Gauge (km) 409.72 Total wagons 10,226 Railway Bridges 3650 Mail, Express, Commuter & Demu 132 Track Kilometres 4,093.15 Intercity trains 86 Number of passenger trains daily 341 Maitree Express (Dhaka-Kolkata) and Bondhon Express (Khulna-Kolkata) 05 Number of freight trains daily 37 Local mixed 126 Yearly operating revenue (million BDT) 11,000 Approved Manpower 40,264 Yearly Passengers carried (millions) 70 Yearly Passenger-Kilometres (million) 9,000 BR Network by Corridor Bangladesh Railway has documented a Master Plan which is aimed to implement by 2045 and this is prepared in conformity to the 7th 5-year plan, vision 2021 1nd 2014. In that plan the Railway network has been organized by key corridors which are listed below: Corridor Dhaka - Chattogram - Cox's Bazar - Deep sea port 1 Corridor Chilahati - Ishurdi- Khulna – Mongla 2 Page 3 Corridor Dhaka - Bangabandhu Bridge - Darsana/Benapole 3 Corridor Dhaka - Bangabandhu Bridge - Rajshahi – Rohanpur 4A 4B Dhaka - Bangabandhu Bridge - Ishurdi - Parbatipur-Chilahati/Birol Corridor Dhaka - Sylhet/Shahbazpur 5 Corridor Dhaka - Bangabandhu Bridge- Sirajganj / Roypur (Jamtoil) - Burimari 6 Corridor Dhaka - Mawa - Bhanga - Jashore - Khulna – Mongla 7A 7B Dhaka - Mawa - Bhanga - Jashore – Benapole 7C Dhaka - Mawa - Bhanga – Barishal 7D Dhaka - Mawa - Bhanga - Kashiani - Gopalganj - Tungipara Corridor Dhaka - Mymensingh - Jamalpur - Tarakandi- Bangabandhu Bridge 8A 8B Dhaka - Bhairab Bazar – Mymensingh Corridor Dhaka - Mawa -Jajira-Rajbari-Moukuri (Mizanpur) - Bara Durgapur 9A (Khas Char) - Pabna – Ishurai 9B Dhaka - Paturia - Douladia - Moukuri (Mizanpur) - Bara Durgapur (Khas Char) - Pabna – Ishurdi. Services of BR Bangladesh Railway provides various types of services ranging from shuttle for university students to freight and cargo service. Following are the important services of BR: Passenger Service Bangladesh Railway is the principal mode of transportation in the country. With the development of road transport facilities there has been a shift in the trend of passenger traffic with short distance passengers preferring road transport, because of their frequent and point to point services. During 2014- 2015, about 67 million passengers were transported by Bangladesh Railway against about 65 million during 2013-2014. In order to render better services to the passengers, BR introduced inter-city train services in 1985. At present there are 88 inter-city trains running. Around 40.9% of the total passengers of BR are being carried by the inter-city trains which contribute approximately 83.6 % of the total earning of passenger traffic. To attract the passengers and improve the overall standard of services, BR has introduced different online services along with other developments. At present following services are available on line: Online (Internet) Railway E-Ticketing Service Train Tracking Monitoring System Train Information display System Ticket buy/booking through SMS Computer Ticketing & Seat Reservation System Maitree and Bondhon Express The Maitree and Bondhon Express are international trains. Maitree Express has been in operation since 2008 linking Dhaka and Kolkata, India while Bondhon Express has linked linking Khulna and Kolkata since 2018. Freight and Cargo services The railway has been facing tough competition with other modes of transport for the high rated traffic, which pay more revenue. On the other hand, the railway is called upon to carry traditional low rated essentials. As a national carrier, BR has an obligation to carry essential commodities like food grains, fertilizer, jute, cement, coal, iron and steel, stone & boulders, petroleum products, salt, sugar etc. to the remote corners of the country at a cheaper rate. BR has experienced negative growth in freight traffic in last few decades due to poor services and facilities and dramatic developments in road and river transportation routes. At present the BR has following different types of wagons for carrying freight: Bogie Cover Wagon (each 34 MT capacity) 250/500 BFCT 450/900 Page 4 BKh/Hooper 100/200 BKC 120/240 Each train can carry 31/62 Containers. Each train carries 30/60 Racks with a total capacity of 1050 MT. Bangladesh Railway transports containers from Chattogram to Dhaka. Special type flat wagons required for container movement were initially arranged by converting some existing wagons. Subsequently 80 bogie container flats were procured from China and another 100 bogie container flats were procured from India. An Inland Container Depot has been opened at Dhaka with custom and port facilities for clearance of container traffic. Exclusive container trains were introduced on 5 August 1991. Since then, volume of container traffic gained a momentum but BR is yet to catch up with road and water transportation facilities. At present there is only one Inland Container Depot (ICD) at Kamlapur, Dhaka which is connected by Rail, which is insufficient to carry future loads. At present approximately 75-80 thousand containers are being handled by BR between CPA and ICD Kamlapur. Another ICD is under process of establishment at Dhirasram, north of Tongi and just south of Joydevpur. It will be 264 km only from Chattogram, whereas distance of Kamlapur is 321 km from Chattogram. It is expected that Dhirasram ICD will be able handle 500,000 TEU yearly. Pangaon river port / ICD is running with minimum capacity being underutilized as it is used by few inland ships only who carry containers from Chattogram to Pangaon, but once Padma Bridge is operational, this ICD will be connected by rail and it will be a hub between Dhaka and South Bengal and India through Benapole Land Port. Container holding capacity 4067 TEUs Yard area 1 36 954 Sq. m Container Freight Stations (CFS) 8000 Sq. m Weighbridge 2 in Two gates Equipment Reach Stackers-2 (45 MT), Forklifts-4 (42 MT), Reach Stacker-1 (7 MT), Low Mast Forklift-6 (3 MT), Tractor Trailors-8. Wagons for container