Rail journey is becoming risky day by day as most of the railway bridges and culverts of the country are in dire need of reparation. Considering the gravity of the situation, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently ordered a countrywide structural survey of road and railway bridges and culverts to find if they need to be repaired. She ordered for the surveys to be done before the end of the rainy season, according to media reports.
According to Bangladesh Railway sources, 90 percent of the country’s 3,143 railway bridges and culverts were constructed at least 85 years ago during the British period. Becoming heavily vulnerable most of them are now posing a great risk to the lives of people travelling over those every day. On the other hand, the sources said, out of total rail routes, 2,858.23 km tracks were constructed before the independence whereas only 97.3 km tracks were constructed during the last 48 years.
The Prime Minister’s order came following the derailment of Dhaka-bound Upaban Express train from Sylhet on June 23 night that took the lives of five people. “Rail communications are generally considered as a safe mode of transport by the country’s people. All the faulty rail bridges and culverts must be repaired immediately, so that people don’t lose their confidence in rail,” the premier told an ECNEC meeting on Tuesday.
According to a recent survey of Bangladesh Railway, out of the 3,143 bridges and culverts, 402 have become not suitable for use at present. Condition of those bridges have turned deadly due to lack of reparation year after year. Regarding the PM’s instruction and necessity of reparation of rail bridges, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said the repair works accumulated in decades cannot be carried out in a short time. However, conducting the instructed survey in a short period of time, the necessary reparations would be done soon.
At present, there are 326 big railway bridges (more than 60 feet long) and 2,817 small bridges and culverts. Most of them were constructed 80 to 100 years ago.
It has been learnt that, rail authorities usually instruct the drivers to drive the train very slowly on risky bridges. Although it was supposed to drive at 45 to 70 km speed per hour on a bridge, drivers run the trains at a much lower speed, 10 to 15 km per hour, to avoid accident.
Concerned sources said BR authorities had been showing indifference to repair those bridges for decades. Whenever a file is prepared proposing reparation of a bridge or culvert, it remains on the desk year after year. Under the Sylhet division of the east zone of Bangladesh Railway (BR), the rail bridges, constructed on hill fountains and rivers 60 to 70 years ago, in some places have become flimsy due to a lack of maintenance and repair, BR sources said.
According to the engineering department of the BR, there are 250 big and small bridges on the 177 kilometer long rail route. A total of 2,786 train accidents took place from July 2007 to June 2017 which led to 1,546 recorded casualties, including 365 deaths and 1,181 cases of injury, according to Bangladesh Railway. Derailments caused the maximum number of accidents.
On anonymity, a BR official said activities of the railway department is being carried out on ad hoc basis. Whenever a problem arises, it is addressed. There is no overall survey or regular monitoring. The official said that a 25,000 weak workforce is conducting the job of one lakh workers under only 420 officials.
