To make railway a profitable organisation the authority concerned is going to increase its manpower as well as to stop lease system.
According to the railway sources, the leased-out trains under private management are making double profit. Now the authorities have decided that the leased-out trains would be operated under their own management by increasing manpower.
The Railway authority has taken various projects that are being implemented for its development. Sophisticated bogies, locomotives are being added to its fleet. The number of passengers is also increasing. Despite all these measures the Railway is unable to make profit rather the amount of losses is increasing every year.
Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said that, "Service is given more importance than business. Various steps have been taken to reduce the losses".
At present, 41 trains are running under private management. These local trains are paying around Tk 58 crore yearly to the Railway. Before leasing out the railway authority could hardly get Tk 24 crore.
Railway information showed, 16 local trains in the eastern part and 25 in the western part of the railway are operating under private management. The Mahananda train is paying more than Tk 3.18 crore to the railway annually where it used to earn only Tk 46 lakh a year before giving lease.
The Rajshahi commuter train is paying more than Tk 6.15 crore to the Railway annually. Before giving lease, it used to earn only Tk 51 lakh. Mahua commuter train is paying more than Tk 2.14 crore annually. The official income during the operation under government management was only Tk 68.55 lakh.
However, transport experts fear that bringing those leased-out trains under government management again may increase its total losses further, if they failed to operate like private sector.
Transport expert Prof Shamsul Hoque said, "As private operator provides better service the number of their passengers are also increasing gradually. It will be better for us if we emphasize on public-private partnership (PPP) than traditional operation".
Meanwhile, according to the government information it was learnt that, the Railway Ministry is going to recruit huge manpower for the betterment of its management.
