Restructuring the railways

No service provider of the size of railway should ever go on a wildcat strike that causes horrendous public hardship and losses to the national economy. Significantly, the strike was designed to be a preemptive move whereby signing of a funding agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) yesterday was sought to be resisted. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) recently approved a Tk 3,500 crore Railway Improvement Project with the Asian Development Bank providing most of the funds.

There cannot be second opinion that the Bangladesh Railways needs modernisation, restructuring and overhaul. Given its potential, there is a grievous sense of loss in the way the railway system is being run. Much of its landed property is in illegal possession, its rolling stocks and tracks are in an abysmal state and it has reached a near dysfunctional state. The railway workers and employees should know it better than anybody else. Like many a vermin, vested quarters are bleeding it white. So much in the red has it gone that the employees and workers should themselves welcome a radical restructurisation of the railways in their best interest.

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On the issue of privatisation we have to say that it has not been brought to the public domain. Parts of the railway services are in private hands but to go for wholesale privatisation we shall have to deliberate on its pros and cons and take a balanced and, perhaps, a phase-wise decision. India and Pakistan with their very large railway networks have not privatised yet, although they have associated private sectors with the commercial side of railway operations.

We are all for the reform and modernisation of the railways so that it is turned into a profitable concern unflinchingly wedded to the highest ideal of public service.