Bangladesh Railway

History

Railway operation in today's Bangladesh began on 15 November 1862 when 53.11 kilometres of 5 ft 6 in (1,676 mm) (broad gauge) line were opened for traffic between Dorshona of Chuadanga District and Jogotee of Kushtia District. The next 14.98 kilometres 1,000 mm (3 ft 3 ³⁄₈ in) (metre gauge) line was opened for traffic on 4 January 1885. In 1891, the construction of the Bengal Assam Railway was taken up with British Government assistance; it was later taken over by the Bengal Assam Railway Company. On 1 July 1895, two sections of metre gauge were opened: between Chittagong and Comilla, a length of 149.89 kilometres, and between Laksam Upazila and Chandpur District, a length of 50.89 kilometres. Railway Companies formed in England handled the construction and operation of these sections in the middle and late 19th century.

With the partition of India in 1947, the Bengal-Assam Railway was split up. The portion of the system located within the then East Pakistan, 2,603.92 kilometres of track, came under the control of the central Government of Pakistan. From 1 February 1961, the Eastern Bengal Railway was renamed as the Pakistan Eastern Railway. Then in 1962, the control of Pakistan Eastern Railway was transferred from the Central Government to the Government of East Pakistan and, by the presidential Order of 9 June 1962, placed under the management of a Railway Board beginning in the financial year 1962–63 .

As of 2005, the total length of railroad is 2,855 kilometres. Of that, 660 km are broad gauge tracks (mostly in the western region), 1,830 km are metre gauge tracks (mostly in the central and eastern regions) and 365 km are dual gauge tracks. The gauge problem is being tackled by adding third rails to the most important broad and metre gauge routes, so that they become dual gauge. A major road-rail bridge at Jamuna opened in 1998 to connect the previously detached east and west rail networks in dual gauge. On March 2008, the broad gauge reached Dhaka, the national capital. Funding is being sought to upgrade the network and transform Bangladesh Railway into a profitable business. BR exceeded its target revenue earnings in the fiscal year 2007–2008.

Organisational structure

After independence, the railway was first supervised by a Railway Board which was abolished in 1982. Thereafter, the BR came under the jurisdiction of the Railway Division of the Ministry of Communications with the Secretary of the Division working as the Director General of BR. In 1995, instead of being the part of the Ministry, BR came under control of a professional Director General supervised by the Bangladesh Railway Authority that is chaired by the Minister of Railways.

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 operation, maintenance, and finances. Each zone is divided into two divisions that contain departments for Personnel,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 metre gauge locomotives.

BR manages its own Railway Training Academy. A separate Directorate under the Ministry of Communications is charged to inspect different works of BR in relation to safety.

Services

Bangladesh Railway provides various types of services ranging from shuttle service for university students to freight and cargo service. But BR does not make a profit as it is providing services to the nation at subsidised rates to help the country's economy and for the ease of the people.

Passenger Trains in BR

Currently four different class of trains, are operated by Bangladesh Railway.

Apart from that, there are couple of more trains (Maitree Express) run between Dhaka, Bangladesh and Kolkata, India twice a week.

Passenger service

Bangladesh Railway is one of the principal modes of transportation in the country. During 2004–2005, about 42 million passengers were transported by Bangladesh Railway. Bangladesh Railway introduced Intercity Train services in 1985. At present there are 54 Intercity Trains running. Around 38.5% of the total passengers of Bangladesh Railway are being carried by the Intercity trains which contribute approximately 73.3% of the total earnings of passenger traffic.

Maitree Express

The Maitree Express is an international train in operation since 2008. It links Dhaka and Kolkata, India; the travel time is 13 hours.

Accommodation classes

Bangladesh Railway features mainly three classes of Travel: Air Conditioned Class, First Class and Second Class. Third Class was withdrawn as of 1 August 1989. Most of the trains have the First Class and Second Class only. Second Class is divided into Shovon Chair, Shovon, and Shulov sub-classes. In some express and mail trains have separate Second Class compartment is present. In Inter-City and long-distance trains, a restaurant car and a power car are included in the center. All Inter-City trains are partially airconditioned, feature padded leather seats and berths and provide passengers with on-demand sheets, pillows, blankets, as well as restaurant in dining cars. There are some DEMU (Diesel Electric Multiple Unit) runs as Commuter via several divisional railway stations.

Fares and ticketing

BR Fares are relatively cheaper than the bus fares. Ticketing services are available at all railway stations across Bangladesh. Most railway stations are computerized and connected to a central network. Printed tickets are provided to the passengers. Tickets can be bought four days before the journey. 100% (excluding clerical charge) refund is available if the ticket is returned 48 hours prior to departure.

Ticket(s) can also be purchased through internet and mobile phones.

Freight and cargo service

The railway has been facing tough competition with other modes of transport for the high rated traffic, which provide more revenue. As a national carrier, BR is obliged to carry essential commodities like food grains, fertiliser, jute, cement, coal, iron and steel, stone & boulders, petroleum products, salt, sugar etc. to the remote corners of the country at a cheap rates. Freight traffic during 2004–2005 was 3,206 thousand Metric Tons.

Bangladesh Railway transports containers from Port of Chittagong to Dhaka ICD. The special flat wagons required for container movement were initially created 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 customs and port facilities for clearance of container traffic. A dedicated (exclusive) container train was introduced on 5 August 1991. Since then, volume of container traffic has grown considerably.

Railway ferry service

There were 25 marine vessels under Mechanical Department at the end of 2004–2005. The fleet of the marine vessels consists of 2 Passenger vessels, 4 Tugs, 4 Wagon Ferry Barges, 5 Pontoon ramps, 5 Flats and 5 Berthing flats.

Diesel

Bangladesh Railway's fleet of diesel locomotives includes both diesel-electric and diesel-hydraulic machines.

Steam

A small number of steam locomotives are preserved in Bangladesh.

The 762 mm gauge locomotives are from the Rupsa-Bagerhat railway which was the only 762 mm gauge line in East Pakistan when colonial India was partitioned in 1947. It was re-gauged to 1,676 mm gauge in 1970.

Coaches

(as of 2014)

Workshops

Bangladesh Railway has sheds, depots and workshops for maintenance. Rolling Stock, Locomotives are maintanied in 3 places viz shed shop & CLW. Carriage & Wagons are maintained in two places i.e. in C&W Depot & workshop.

Locomotives are maintained in following workshops :

Carriages & wagons are maintained in following workshops

Existing railway stations

Kamalapur Railway Station, the central railway station in Dhaka. Bangladesh Railway had a total of 454 railway stations at the end of the year 2004–05.Now,Bangladesh Railway has total 489 stations(2015).These include one block hut, thirteen train halts and four goods booking points.

Proposed duplication

Train ferry

A train ferry goes from:

Accidents

Timeline

Railway links with adjacent countries