The Bangladesh Railway (BR), one of the oldest public transport systems in the country, has remained for far too long a neglected sector despite the railway emerging globally as the most modern, efficient and rapidly developing mode of land-based mass transport. Against this backdrop, the report that the BR has drafted its third master plan, envisaging an investment of around Tk2.9 trillion by 2060, is no doubt a development worth noting. The draft, prepared reportedly with BR's own resources, proposes 118 civil projects focusing on demand-based track development, electrification, unification of the mixed-gauge network and expansion of railway services to 10 more districts. Priority schemes include the Bogura-Sirajganj, Joydebpur-Ishwardi, Akhaura-Sylhet and Tongi-Bhairab dual-gauge double lines. What is more, the plan is expected to integrate track development with procurement of coaches and locomotives, maintenance facilities, workshops and manpower development. This is important because railway development cannot simply mean laying new tracks while trains, skilled hands and maintenance facilities remain in short supply.
Indeed, Bangladesh's experience with railway planning has not always been an enviable one. The first master plan, approved in 2013, envisaged 235 projects, while its revised version, approved in 2019, proposed 215 projects to be completed by 2045. Some important schemes including the Padma Bridge rail link and the Dohazari-Cox's Bazar line have since been completed, yet many projects under the existing plan are unlikely to be implemented within its stipulated period. Meanwhile, the country now has around 3,400 kilometres of rail network, but shortages of locomotives, coaches and operational facilities have often prevented the infrastructure already built from being utilised fully. More significantly, railway's share in freight movement remains below 5.0 per cent, though the government's transport strategy reportedly aims to raise it to at least 20 per cent. Small wonder that expansion of tracks alone has failed to transform the BR into a dependable passenger and freight carrier a densely-populated and fast-urbanizing economy needs. The third master plan should, therefore, learn from the mismatch between physical expansion and actual service delivery.
At this point, however, the government needs to distinguish between what can be delivered now and what necessarily belongs to the longer horizon. Projects capable of improving the quality, frequency and reliability of train services within the tenure of the incumbent government should be identified and put on the fast track. Issues like double-tracking congested corridors, completing missing links, modernising signalling, procuring adequate locomotives and carriages, introducing electric traction on suitable busy routes and so on are hardly ambitions that should remain on paper for decades. In particular, the proposed electrification of the Narayanganj-Dhaka-Joydebpur corridor and its extension towards Chattogram deserves serious attention. The point is that people should be able to experience visible improvement in railway service during the present government's term. Otherwise, another long list of projects extending to 2060 may end up becoming yet another catalogue of aspirations whose deadlines are repeatedly shifted and costs revised.
Long-term planning should not be confined to catching up with what other countries have achieved. Notably, high-speed rail is expanding rapidly, with over 56,000 kilometres in operation globally, and Bangladesh cannot indefinitely remain outside that transition. In fact, there is history of earlier moves to explore a high-speed railway between Dhaka and Chattogram. Even if today's fiscal realities do not permit immediate construction of such an expensive system, the third master plan should reserve corridors, undertake feasibility studies, protect land and create infrastructure standards compatible with high-speed trains. For a small, densely populated country where major economic centres are separated by manageable distances, faster rail can change the geography of travel, business and regional development. But visions for 2060 will have value only if today's basic railway is first made efficient, safe and reliable. So, the government would do well to act fast on achievable railway modernisation projects while laying the infrastructural groundwork for the high-speed railway in the future.
