On a sunny afternoon last month, 11 students were happily returning from an excursion at a waterfall at Mirsarai in Chittagong. The students died as the hired microbus carrying them got through an unmanned level crossing and was hit by a speeding train.
The July 29 accident occurred only a couple of weeks after a train ran over a newlywed couple at a rail crossing in Sirajganj.
There are definite reasons behind such horrible accidents, and the topmost of them is illegal and unmanned rail crossings.
According to data from the railways ministry, among the 2,822 rail crossings of Bangladesh Railway (BR), 1,354 are illegal and 2,258 are without gatemen.
Among the legal rail crossings, 904 are unmanned.
The Bangladesh Railway Board (BR) has only 564 gatemen, majority of whom are hired temporarily under different projects, and only 331 are holding permanent positions. To fill up the gap, BR has to recruit around 16,932 people, which the government body is failing to do. In the last one decade, a total of 936 accidents happened at the country's rail crossings, which took away a staggering 516 lives.
Up to 90% of rail accidents happen at rail crossings and it is not the responsibility of the railways ministry to ensure that no vehicle gets in the way of trains, the minister had said. "Coordination is needed among all the related stakeholders and everyone has to do their duties accordingly," he added.
The director general (DG) of BR, Dhirendra Nath Majumder, said that they are taking up a project to avert accidents at rail crossings. Sujan also said that rail accidents will decrease if illegal rail crossings are closed. "Some people always find a way to foil our attempts," Sujan said.
Special alarm systems are to be installed at all the illegal rail crossings in Northern Ireland so that they can detect an approaching train from one kilometre away, said Dhirendra.
Mohammad Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, secretary general of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity, said that legal steps have to be taken against those who build illegal rail crossings even if they have political influences.
“BR has to find out their shortcomings and take immediate steps to close the illegal rail crossings through taking the local administration by their side. Averting rail accidents will be easier if BR can coordinate with the local government bodies. BR needs to be modernized and the first thing to do in this regard is to take care of the deadly rail crossings scattered all over the country,” Mozammel said.
