Railway Re-Orientation in Bangladesh

Page 1 of 98 RE-ORIENTATION OF BANGLADESH RAILWAY: A MARKET INTEGRATION STUDY BY MD. SAIDUR RAHMAN ID NO.: 40201045 A Thesis submitted to the Department of Marketing, Evening MBA Program, Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka, in partial fulfillment of the requirement of Internship Program for the degree Of MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION August 10, 2005
DECLARATION I hereby certify that the research work reported in this project paper has been performed by me and this work has not been submitted elsewhere for any other purposes except for publication and thesis. August 10, 2005 Md. Saidur Rahman Page 2 of 98
Page 3 of 98 PREFACE This Project Paper has been prepared on “Re-orientation of Bangladesh Railway: A Market Integration Study ” for the partial fulfillment of the Internship program of Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. The purpose behind this report writing is to make the students knowledgeable and capable in writing a project paper individually. As I am serving Bangladesh Railway as an Assistant Executive Engineer, I feel free to choose an exceptional but important topic on Bangladesh Railway as project paper for my Internship. While preparing this report, I have to study my organization as well as transportation sector of Bangladesh thoroughly and thus received practical knowledge about the present situation of Bangladesh Railway and country’s transport sector. The specific objective of this study is to identify & analyze various problems & prospects and marketing issues of Bangladesh Railway and to provide a set of recommendations to make railway as a profitable market-led commercial organization of the Government. I feel very much proud having a chance of writing a report on such exciting and important topic. While preparing this report, I have to study some selected writings on Transportation system & Infrastructure policies of Bangladesh & other countries and also have to search the web and thus received important

References: ♦ Bangladesh Railway (2004), “Information Book”, Railbhaban, Dhaka ♦ Bangladesh Railway (2003), “Information Book”, Railbhaban, Dhaka ♦ Bangladesh Bureau Statistics (2001), “Statistical Year Book”, Dhaka ♦ http://www.unescap.org Page 96 of 98 APPENDIX A-1: Historical Events of Bangladesh Railway 15 November 1862: construction of 53.11 kms of Broad Gauge (BG) line between Darsana and Jagati of Kushtia district by Eastern Bengal Railway. 1 January 1871: Extention of Darsana-Jagati railway line up to Goalanda by Eastern Bengal Railway. 1882-84: Bengal Central Railway Company constructed Benapole-Khulna BG railway line. 1 July 1884: Government took over the management of Eastern Bengal Railway. 4 January 1885: Railway Meter Gauge (MG) connection between Dhaka and Narayangonj, a distance of 14.98 kms by Dhaka State Railway, which was later on merged with Eastern Bengal State Railway. 1885: Construction of Dhaka-Mymensingh railway section by Dhaka State Railway. 1 April 1887: Eastern Bengal Railway was merged with Northern Bengal State Railway. 1891: Construction of the Assam-Bengal Railway taken up with British Government assistance but was later on taken over by Assam-Bengal Railway Company. 1 July 1895: opening of 149.89 kms MG lines between Chittagong and Comilla and 50.89 kms MG lines between Laksam and Chandpur by Assam-Bengal Railway. 3 November 1895: Chittagong to Chittagong Port line was constructed. 1896: Construction of MG line from Comilla to Akhaura and Akhaura to Karimgonj. 1897: Single line section between Darsana and Poradaha converted into double line section. 1898-1899: Mymensingh-Jagannathgonj MG railway line was constructed. 1899-1900: MG railway line was constructed between Santahar Junction to Fulchhari by Brahmaputra-Sultanpur Railway Company. 1903: Laksam-Noakhali section constructed by Noakhali (Bengal) Railway Company. 1 April 1904: Bengal Central Railway Company and Brahmaputra-Sultanpur Railway Company taken over by Government managed Eastern Bengal Railway. 1905: Opening of Kaunia-Bonarpara MG section and Government purchased the Noakhali (Bengal) Railway Company. 1 January 1906: Noakhali (Bengal) Railway Company merged with Assam-Bengal Railway. Page 97 of 98 1909: Poradaha-Bhairamara single line converted into double line. 1910-1914: Akhaura-Tongi section opened. Conversion of Shakole to Santahar MG section into BG. 1912-1915: Kulaura-Sylhet section opened. 1 January 1915: Hardinge Railway Bridge was opened over the river Padma at Paksey. 1915-1916: Sara-Sirajgonj line constructed by Sara-Sirajgonj Railway Company. 1916: Bhairamara-Raita BG section opened. 1912-1918: Gouripur-Mymensingh-Netrokona and Shamgonj-Jhariajanjail sections constructed by Mymensingh-Bhairab Bazar Railway Company. 1915-1932: Bhairamara-Irshurdi-Abdulpur single line section converted into double line. 10 June 1918: Rupsha-Bagerhat Narrow Gauge (NG) section constructed by a Branch line company. July 1924: Conversion of Santahar-Parbatipur MG section into BG. September 1926: Conversion of Parbatipur-Chilahati MG section into BG. 1928: opening of Shaistagonj-Habigonj section. 1928-29: Tista-Kurigram NG section converted into BG. 1929: Shaistagonj-Balla and Chittagong-Hathazari sections opened. 1930: Hathazari-Nazirhat MG qnd Abdulpur-Amnura BG sections opened. 1931: Sholashahar-Dohazari section opened. 6 December 1937: Opening of King VI George Bridge connecting Bhairab Bazar and Ashugonj over the river Meghna. 1941: Jamalpur-Bahadurabad MG section opened. 1 January 1942: Assam-Bengal Railway taken over by Government and amalgamated with the Eastern Bengal Railway under the name “Bengal and Assam Railway”. 1 October 1944: Government took over Sara-Sirajgonj Railway Company. 1947: Bengal and Assam Railway was split up and the portion within the boundary of erstwhile East Pakistan was named as “Eastern Bengal Railway”, the control remaining with Central Government of Pakistan. 1948-1949: Government taken over Mymensingh-Bhairab Bazar Railway Company and Rupsa-Bagerhat Branch Line Company. 21 April 1951: Jessore-Darsana Railway line opened to traffic. October 1954: Sylhet to Chatak Bazar railway line opened to traffic. 1 February 1961: Eastern Bengal Railway renamed as Pakistan Eastern Railway. 1962: A Railway Board was formed and management of Railway was placed under the Provincial Government. 1972: Pakistan Eastern Railway renamed as Bangladesh Railway. 23 June 1998: BG railway line extended from Jamtail to Ibrahimabad via Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge. 14 August 2003: Inauguration of direct Intercity train Service from Rajshahi to Joydebpur (Dhaka) via Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge. Page 98 of 98 Table A-2: Bangladesh Railway Information Mirror Serial # Particulars 2002-03 2003-04 1 Total Route Kilometers 2880.07 2854.96 2 Total Track Kilometers 4442.95 4442.95 3 Total numbers of Locomotives 275 273 4 Total numbers of Carriages 1410 1411 5 Total numbers of Wagons 13679 13217 6 Number of Stations 459 459 7 Passenger Carried (Million) 39.2 43.4 8 Passenger-Kilometers (Billion) 4.02 4.34 9 Freight Carried (Million Tons) 3.69 3.47 10 Tons-Kilometers (Million) 952 896 11 Total Operating Revenue (Million Tk.)- without considering PDO & Welfare Grants 4200.90 3941.72 12 Total Operating Revenue (Million Tk.)-Considering PDO & Welfare Grants 5227.10 4975.79 13 Total Operating Expenses (Million Tk.) 5867.10 6394.06 14 Revenue per Passenger-km (Paisha) 38.54 38.20 15 Revenue per Ton-km (Paisha) 146.20 144.80 16 Number of Employees 34727 34168 17 Cost of Employees (Million Tk.) 2451.90 2352.14 18 Total Land (Acres) East Zone: 24094.087, West Zone: 37505.64 Source: Railway Information Books, 2003 & 2004