The railway division plans to use its land for commercial purpose to reduce its huge losses being incurred years after years.
Official sources said despite raising the fares in 2012, the railway division failed to bring down the losses.
As part of its initiatives for raising the revenues, the railway authorities have planned to construct a shopping mall-cum-rest house in the heart of the country’s third largest city Khulna at a cost of Tk240 crore.
According to sources, the construction project is a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) initiative.
The Prime Minister’s Office has already given its consent to the PPP initiative. The project proposal will be placed before the cabinet committee on economic affairs soon.
Despite raising passengers’ fare in October 2012, the loss of Bangladesh was Tk760 crore in last fiscal while it stood at Tk1,000 crore in 2011-12.
In 2013-14 fiscal year, the total expenditure was Tk1,691 crore .
The state-run transportation Director General M Tafazzul Hossain said the implementation of the long-term plan might be instrumental to cover the loss of Bangladesh Railway.
“We will be able to tell it quite clearly two years after implementation of the project,” he said.
Bangladesh Railway did not procure bogies over the past couple of years, thus lowering its capacity to provide commuters with standard services.
Besides, Bangladesh Railway’s trains and coaches were severely damaged during political unrest ahead of the last general election, Tafazzal pointed out.
He added that private sector is very much keen on investing in the project under the PPP initiative .
The director general termed the project potential as it will create more jobs and expand business across the country, thus leading to rise in revenues earning for Bangladesh Railway.
The railway division increased its fare from 80% to 110% in 2012 and could raise its earning only 49% at the end of 2012-13 fiscal year.
But it claimed the revenues earning would double if the fare was increased.
According to the data, Bangladesh Railway earned only Tk626 crore in 2011-12 fiscal year while it was Tk930,93 crore at the end of 2013-14 after the new railway fare came into effect since October 1, 2012.
In 2013-14 fiscal, the railway’s income was Tk511.69 crore from transportation of passengers although the target was Tk550 crore.
The earning from parcel, lease of land and other sources was not significant. The railway division earned Tk212.74 crore from transportation of goods although the target was Tk200 crore.