Authorities at Bangladesh Railway are fearing a collapse in the train schedule as the Eid rush reaches its peak, due to faulty and overused locomotives.
The problem is going to be worse for people travelling to the western zone, which covers districts such as Rangpur, Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat, Khulna and Rajshahi, because most of the train services there are run by unfit locomotives.
“The locomotives went out of date years ago; they run really slow and it takes more time than before to prepare them for a trip,” a Railway official told the Dhaka Tribune.
Around 67 trains depart from Kamalapur Railway Station every day, among which 28 are inter-city trains. Among them, eight trains are allotted for the western zone, and the rest are for the eastern zone.
As the Eid rush picks up, the trains will be carrying as many as 50,000 passengers every day, who are likely to face from an hour to as many as 10 hours of delay in departure.
Yesterday, the scheduled Khulna-bound Sundarban Express and Lalmonirhat-bound Lalmoni Express were delayed by more than an hour before they left Kamalapur, said Nripen Chandra Saha, station master at the railway station.
“We are, indeed, facing some obstacles in maintaining the Eid train schedule, but we are working to reduce the travellers’ sufferings,” said Amzad Hossain, director general of Bangladesh Railway.
“This problem will not persist next year as the government is going to get 150 locomotives from Indonesia and India.”
Meanwhile Railways Minister Mazibul Hoque claimed the previous BNP-Jamaat government was responsible for the sorry state of the train services. “It is the Awami League government that is taking several steps to improve the railways, such as purchasing new locomotives.”
Bangladesh Railway started selling advance tickets for Eid travellers on Thursday. The sales ended yesterday.
