Tickets are not available, the crowd can not rise: still the loss of the railway is 879 crores!

The Dhaka Times Desk Tickets are not available. Can't get on a crowded train, but what's wrong with that? Even so, the annual loss of the railway is 879 million taka!

This sounds very funny. Many people say that there is no loss for the railways now. Maybe at one time the loss was multiplied by the railway. But now there are many passengers. Binatiket has no passengers. Because when you go to buy tickets at the station, you can see that all the tickets have been sold. Tickets are not available even if you go a few days in advance. Again, while riding the train, it was very crowded. But despite all this, it is seen that the loss of the railway has not gone.

The matter came to light yesterday through Parliament. Railway Minister Mujibul Haque told the Parliament that 'Railway loss in one year is Tk 879 crore 5 lakh 74 thousand'. According to the information given by him, "In the fiscal year 2012-13, the expenditure of railways was 1 thousand 684 crores 85 lakhs 49 thousand takas and the income was 850 crores 79 lakhs 75 thousand takas." The railway minister gave this information in response to a question from a member of parliament of Chittagong-4 constituency during the question and answer session of the fifth session of the 10th National Parliament on Sunday.

In this regard, the minister reasoned and said, 'The price of fuel oil, salaries of officials and employees, and even administrative expenses have increased. Train fares are never increased proportionately as a means of transport for the convenience of passengers. Due to which the income of the train is comparatively less. The minister said, 'Basically, the government operates trains considering public service obligations. The matter of profit and loss is not important.'

The minister said that currently 339 passenger trains of the railway are running across the country. As these trains have a total of 1 lakh 67 thousand seats, they are able to hold that amount of passengers.

As rail travel is popular, people always want to travel by rail. But people are discouraged from traveling by rail due to non-scheduled trains, non-availability of tickets or hassles while buying tickets. Besides, vandalism, uprooting of railway lines, other problems are there. These problems have to be solved to make the railway a profitable enterprise.