Importance of communications system is a key factor for the total economic development of a country. In a developing country like Bangladesh, railway communication stays in the upper stairs for the poverty alleviation and rural development.
It is no doubt that railway has been passionately loved by the general public as the biggest and key means of country's communication system though waterways, airways and roadways are available in Bangladesh. That's why the railway for its unique characteristics has been considered as mainstream communication network of the country.
Railway is a service-oriented government organization. It has been providing services to the countrymen over last one hundred three years with sincerity. The railway is somehow attached with the social and economic activities of the countrymen since its beginning. The railway performs the responsibility of countrymen for their safe journey. It plays significant role in carrying goods from one part of the country to the others for expansion of trade and commerce. It also contributes much in national disaster like floods, draught, tidal bore etc by carrying relief materials to the affected areas on priority basis.

Origin
The history of transport is as old as that of man himself. But not so of the railways. The railways are a young member of the transport family. On land the sledge, the cart, the chariot, the tramway borne by man or drawn by animal and on water, the raft, the canoes and the boat moved by wood and wind- all these are much older means of transport. The modern railway is a development of the horse-drawn wagon or tramway, used in England in the 16th centuries for haulage of minerals to river ports. Soon after the invention of stem engine the first " common carrier" steam railway of the world was born in 1825 when the stockton to Darlington Railway in Britain was opened for the general carriage of goods.
The railway is proved as the strongest pillar of economy of any country from the beginning of capitalists' society to present era.
It is already said that the modern railway was introduced first in Britain in1825. It came to the USA in 1833, to Germany in 1835, Italy in 1839, France in 1844, Spain in 1848, Bengal in 1854 and Sweden in 1856. Thus in the adoption of the railway technology which had revolutionized the world transportation system, Bengal was not far behind Europe and America.
The history of the introduction of railway link in Bangladesh dates back to 15th November 1862 when a distance of 53.11 km rail line was opened to traffic in between Darsana-Jagati section of the western zone of Bangladesh railway. This was the beginning of the history of railway in British-Bangladesh.
KUSHTIA was the terminal but in 1867 it was shifted to Gorai due to breach in the river PADMA and the original Kushtia station was abandoned in the following year. The 75-km long railway line from Kushtia to Goalanda, an inland river port on the bank of Padma (below the confluence of Padma and JAMUNA), was opened on 1st January 1871.
A new 250-km long metre gauge (1000 mm) railway line known as the Northern Bengal State Railway was constructed between 1874 and 1879 from Sara (on the left bank of Padma) to Chilahati (extended up to Shiliguri of India, at the foot of the Himalayas). The line branched off from PARBATIPUR to KAUNIA on the east and from Parbatipur to DINAJPUR on the west. At the same time, an extension (1676 mm) of the Eastern Bengal Railway from Poradaho to Damukdia (1676 mm), on the right bank of Padma, opposite Sara branched off and extended eastward. Passengers crossed the river Padma by railway operated steamer ferry. As a result, journey from Calcutta to Shiliguri became possible without a break. On 1st July 1884 the British government took over the Eastern Bengal Railway and renamed it as the Eastern Bengal State Railway.
In 1885, the 144-km long Narayanganj-Dhaka-Mymensingh metre gauge (1000 mm) railway line was opened under the title of Dhaka State Railway mainly for carriage of raw jute up to the inland port of NARAYANGANJ and then onwards by river to Calcutta. In 1887, to ensure better management, the Northern Bengal State Railway along with Dhaka State Railway and the narrow gauge (762 mm) railway line from Kaunia to KURIGRAM (Dharla) were amalgamated with the Eastern Bengal State Railway. For similar reasons, the company-built broad gauge Bongaon-Jessore-Khulna railway opened in 1882-84 under the name of Bengal Central Railway and the 94-km metre gauge railway from Santahar to Fulchhari (Tistamukhghat) opened during 1899 -1900 were also absorbed in the Eastern Bengal State Railway on 1st April and 1st July 1904 respectively. The extended 44 km Kaunia-Bonarpara metre gauge line was opened in 1905. The 80-km long Ishwardi-Sirajganj section was commissioned in 1916. Thus railway network was able to cover a substantial part of RAJSHAHI and Dhaka Divisions.

In order to provide a continuous link between Calcutta and North Bengal and Assam, construction of a bridge over the river Padma was essential. With the completion of construction of the HARDINGE BRIDGE over Padma, the metre gauge section from Sara to Santahar was converted to broad gauge in 1914. Main trunk railway lines from Calcutta and beyond to Delhi, Madras and Bombay were of broad gauge standard. Hardinge Bridge designed for double-lane broad gauge was opened on 4 March 1915 to traffic. In July 1924, the 95-km long Santahar to Parbatipur section and by September 1926, the 67-km long Parbatipur to Chilahati section were converted from metre to broad gauge.
As such direct movement of goods and passengers from the foot of the Himalayas over North Bengal to Calcutta and beyond to other places of India became possible without any transshipment. In 1915, the word 'State' was officially dropped from the 'Eastern Bengal State Railway'.
As a matter of principle, the British government adopted three types of railway gauges (breadth). These were broad gauge (1767 mm), metre gauge (1000 mm) and narrow gauge (762 mm), depending upon involvement of capital cost and rate of return. Short distance railway lines were constructed to connect with the nearest river port or to bridge the missing link between main railway routes. Extension of railway lines was done to connect new important areas. Where necessary, conversions were carried out to provide compatibility of railway gauges in order to continue a journey without any transshipment.
In order to improve management, the 88-km long privately owned Mymensingh-Jagannathganj line operated by Eastern Bengal
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contd from page 11Railway was acquired by the State in the 1920s. On 1 October 1944, the government also purchased the 80-km Ishwardi-Sirajganj section which came into operation in 1915-16 as a private venture. In 1916, the BHERAMARA-Raita line was opened as a standard broad gauge line. The 32-km Khulna-Bagerhat narrow gauge line constructed by the Eastern Bengal Railway by June 1918 was acquired by the State during 1948-49. By 1919, a total of 1806.16 km of lines owned by the Company or the government was accessible to traffic.
The Tista-Kaunia narrow gauge line was converted to metre gauge in 1928-29. The Bahadurabad-Singjhani (JAMALPUR town) metre gauge line was opened in 1912. The Abdulpur-Amnura broad gauge branch line was opened in 1930 mainly to cater to the need of MANGO and SUGARCANE transportation and to make a further link with the West from Central Bengal via Rohanpur. In keeping with the growth of traffic, a double line broad gauge track between Darsana and Poradaha was constructed in August 1897. It was further extended by the Poradaha-Bheramra, Bheramara-Ishwardi, and Ishwardi-Abdulpur broad gauge lines. These were doubled in 1909, 1915 and 1932 respectively.

In order to transport TEA from the Assam valley, Bengal Duars narrow gauge railway line stretching northwards from Kaunia and circling around Kuchbihar of North Bengal by 1902 was amalgamated with the Eastern Bengal Railway in 1941. Its southern portion now falls within the railway system of Bangladesh. The whole of Eastern Bengal Railway was situated on the west side of the BRAHMAPUTRA, except for the Bahadurabad-Dhaka-Narayanganj line. The Eastern Bengal railway catered to industrial and suburban areas of Calcutta and as such the alignment of the railway track was Calcutta oriented.
Later, during the time of the then Pakistan and even after the liberation of Bangladesh no efforts could be taken to make this link Dhaka-oriented. As for example, passengers are to travle 80km more to reach Dhaka from Chittagong by the existing rail line established during the British period. If one chord-line straight from Laksham to Dhaka could be installed, one can travel Dhaka-Chittagong by railway within three hours.
The construction of the ASSAM BENGAL RAILWAY was started by the State in 1891 in response to the demand of tea planters. Tea export at least cost necessitated the development of the Chittagong port and link it to Assam Bengal Railway. On 1st July 1895, a 150-km metre gauge track between Chittagong and COMILLA along with a length of 61-km between LAKSHAM and CHANDPUR were opened to traffic. In 1896 Comilla-Akhaura-Kulaura-Shahbajpur section was commissioned.
Construction of the missing links between different railways continued. The Assam Bengal Railway operated a private company venture, the Laksham-Noakhali branch line, which was opened in 1903. The government purchased the line in 1905 and amalgamated it with the Assam Bengal Railway on 1st January 1906. The Tongi branch line between Tongi and AKHAURA was opened between 1910 and 1914, the SYLHET branch between Sylhet and KULAURA between 1912 and 1915, the Shaistagang-Habigang branch in 1928, the Shaistaganj-Balla and Feni-Belonia branches in 1929, the Chittagong-Sholoshahar branch in 1929, Sholoshahar-Nazirhat line in 1930, and Sholoshahar- Dohazari line in 1931.
Mymensingh-Bhairab Bazar Railway Company constructed the railway sections of Mymensing-Gouripur, Gouripur-Netrokona-Mohanganj, Shyamganj-Jaria Janjail, and Gouripur-Bhairab Bazar between 1912 and 1918. These sections were acquired by the State in 1948-49. The Assam Bengal Railway Company was in charge of the management of the Mymensingh-Gouripur-Bhairab Bazar railway line. The Bridge over river MEGHNA opened on 6 December 1937 enabling through communication between Dhaka and Chittagong. On 1st January 1942, the Assam Bengal Railway was acquired by the government and amalgamated with the Eastern Bengal Railway under the name of the Bengal and Assam Railway.
After the PARTITION OF BENGAL in August 1947, the Bengal and Assam Railway was split up between Pakistan and India. East Bengal (East Pakistan) inherited 2606.59 km of railway line, which was named as the Eastern Bengal Railway (EBR). On 1st February 1961, it was renamed the Pakistan Eastern Railway. EBR received about 500-km broad gauge and 2100-km metre gauge tracks, but no workshops to repair broad gauge locomotives and rolling stock. East Pakistan, however, inherited a metre gauge workshop at SAIDPUR. EBR suffered from operational draw-backs and physical impediments in the movement of traffic such as missing railway links, discontinuous tracks and transshipment points, shifting ghat stations on both banks of the Jamuna, and wagon ferry services between the banks of Jamuna river with the perpetual problem of shifting rail heads from season to season and also within the same season. Moreover, the entire railway system faced severe stresses and strains during World War II. Damages were not repaired till partition.
Soon after Partition, broad gauge loco repair facilities were installed at the Saidpur Workshop. The missing broad gauge railway link of 69.23 km between Darsana and JESSORE section was constructed quickly and it was opened on 21 April 1951. On 15 October 1954, the 33.8-km Sylhet-Chatak Bazar section was commissioned, mainly to connect the sources of collection of boulders and stones required for building railway tracks. From April 1970, a newly installed mono-rail ropeway started functioning over a distance of 18.51 km from the river bed of Bholaganj to the rail head at Chatack Bazar for transportation of stones and boulders. The mono-rail had a carrying capacity of 60 tons per hour. By May 1970, the narrow gauge Rupsa-Bagerhat section was converted to broad gauge and was opened to traffic.
Bangladesh Railway: After the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country, the name of the railway was changed to Bangladesh Railway. It inherited 2835.04 km of tracks and 454 stations.

Among total tracks, 1266 km is meter-gauge in east zone, 533 km meter-gauge and 365 km dual-gauge in west zone. This railway connected 44 administrative district of the country.

Bangladesh railway now has 345 bridges and 1612 level-crossing. Meanwhile, it has 286 locomotives, 1403 carriages and 10,246 wagons. Among the wagons, 7525 are covered, 1114 are open and 1607 special wagons. The railway has now been operating 264 passenger trains, 64 inter-city trains, 56 mail expresses, 8 shuttle trains and 136 local trains in its 79 routes. Approximately 44.5 million passengers traveled by trains in a year and transported 3.21 million goods.

Bangladesh railway introduced container services in 1986 for the rapid progress of country's export-import in Dhaka-Chittagong route. Meanwhile, it introduced exclusive container service on August 5, 1991. Bangladesh railway transported approximately 81270 TEUS containers in 2005-2006. Earlier, Dhaka container depot had been declared as port.

Process of export-import has been made simple through the introduction of container service. A project of ICD construction at Dhirasshrom in Gazipur is now underway which will be implemented under the financial assistance of Asian Development Bank (ADB).
Installation of rail-track on Jamuna Bridge is a milestone in country's rail communication and it has opened a new era for country's communication sector. The process of converting the existing meter-gauge line at Gazipur to Dhaka into dual-gauge is progressing with full pace. At present, works between Gazipur to Cantonment has been completed. The project which is expected to be completed by the middle of next year will connect the entire western zone with the capital city Dhaka. .
In order to reduce the gap between income and expenditure which was gradually increasing over the few years due to various obvious reasons, a project titled 'Recovery Programme' had been launched few years back.
As part of the programme some major steps like reduction of number of employees by introducing 'golden handshake' voluntary retirement system, cancellation of non-profitable trains from different routes, involvement of non-government organizations in commercial activities, drive against ticket-less passengers, increase of goods transportation in wagons, increase of production in workshop and prevention of pilferage of railway wealth were taken.
Commercial activities of seventy-seven mail express and local trains and on-board services of 10 Inter-City trains had been privatized.
Extra capacity of the Optical Fiber Telecom System of railway has been rented to Grameenphone. The management has also introduced computerized seat reservation system for modern ticketing system.
Apart from this, non-government organizations have been given responsibility to repair and rehabilitation of locomotives, coaches etc. Proper steps have also been taken for the commercial use of railway land.
It is already said that the role of railway in respect of transportation is very significant. The extent of environmental pollution made by Railway is very less in comparison to other transports. A recent survey report reveals that a bus pollutes environment 8 times more than a train. Similarly a truck pollutes environment 30 times more than a train.
Usually a train at a time can carry passengers equal to the passengers of 20 to 25 buses while a goods train can carry goods at a time equal to 200 trucks on an average. As a result fuel consumption and use of land are very negligible in railways. So, the railway is called the environment-friendly communication system. Moreover, train journey is also safe and comfortable to the commuters. The death rate in railway is also very less compared to other transport.
As for example, in last six years that is from 2001 to 2006, 25, 34, 28, 38, 17 and 20 passengers were killed respectively in train accident. On the other hand, thousands of people died in roads and waterways accidents.
It is mentioned that the difference between income and expenditure in railway has been increasing gradually every year. Blasting railway officials, many people opined that railway is incurring heavy losses every year due to mismanagement, misappropriation, corruption etc. But the reality is different. As the profit and loss of the roads and highways department, most vital organizations of the transport sector are not taken into account, the loss and profit of the railway also should not be considered as prime one.
Railway is a service oriented commercial organization. Service is more important than profit. So it is not always run on consideration of profit and loss. Its prime objective is to provide service to the general people and it is run for the greater interest of general people. For this reason, railway fare has not been increased since 1992. On the other hand, the fuel price was enhanced several times. Maintenance cost is also increased remarkably during the time.
All employees of the government organizations including the employees of Roads and Highways department receive their salaries and pensions from the government exchequer. But the employees of Bangladesh Railway being government organization get their salaries from its own account. Their pensions are also paid from railway fund. Meanwhile, salaries and allowances of the government are enhanced several times since 1992. Moreover, the expenditure of law enforcing agency, welfare organizations like hospitals, schools and colleges are borne by the railway. Whereas, investment in railway sector, is very poor in comparison to other modes of transports.
In spite of various impediments railway is striving hard to improve the railway services and bring the railway to the doorsteps of the general people. Railway is going to implement a biggest project in its history for overall upliftment of railway services. A programme is now under way to make the railway as a corporate entity. Under the project construction works of double line from Tongi to Bhariab Bazar will begin within this financial year while construction works of double line from Chinki Astana to Laksham is expected to begin by the next year. It is hoped that with the completion of the double line construction work in above sections, journey between Dhaka Chittagong will be lessen to three hours
Descriptions of the development projects now being implemented in railway are appended below:
1. Rehabilitation of main line sections of Bangladesh Railway (East zone).
2. Rehabilitation of main line sections of Bangladesh Railway (West zone).
3. Procurement of 47 locomotives (41 MG and 6 BG).
4. Jamuna Bridge railway link construction
5. Replacement and modernization of Signaling and Interlocking system of 14 stations of western zone of Bangladesh Railway.
6. The procurement of 13 numbers of locomotives and 453/906 special type wagons for transportation and extracted hardrock and coal from Maddhapara hardrock Bara Pukuria coal mine area.
7. Rehabilitation of 258 MG and 110 BG passenger carriages phase II.
8. Conversion of Dhaka Joydevpur MG section into dual gauge.
9. Conversion of 15 numbers MG passenger carriages, 180 numbers of freight wagons and 8 numbers brake vans into air brake from vacuum brake and coupler MCA/ABC to semi-automatic and 16 locomotives coupler MCA/ABC to semi-automatic.
10. Construction of railway link from Tarakandi to Jamuna Bridge east.
11. Modernization of Signaling and Interlocking system of 7 stations in west zone.
12. Construction of railway link from Titas bridge to Azampur railway stations.
13. Remodeling of Rajshahi station and yard
14. Rehabilitation of branch line of BR
15. Modernization of Signaling and Interlocking system of 10 stations of Akhaura Sylhet section
16. Improvement of 16 stations of eastern and western sections of Bangladesh Railway.
17. Procurement of 50 MG and 50 BG passenger carriages.
18. Procurement of 30 coaches (14 AC Chair Coaches, 3 AC sleeper coaches, 4 power cars, 5 AC chair coaches and 4 inspection car.
19. Modernization of Signaling and Interlocking systems of 12 stations of Akhaura-Sylhet section.
20. Construction of passengers' platform shed and extension and improvement of Dhaka rail station.
21. Rehabilitation of flood damages in 2004.
22. Signaling, interlocking, modernization and rehabilitation work of Akhaura Junction.
23. Rehabilitation and Remodeling of Maijgoan and Shaistaganj station.
24. Extension and development of Airport Rail Station.
25. Rehabilitation of Lakhsam-Noakhali railway line.
26. Rehabilitation of 65 locomotives.
27. Rehabilitation of Sylhet railway station remodeling (phase-II)
28. Study on conversion of Dhaka-Chittagong railway section into dual gauge and introducing electric traction.
29. Feasibility study for rehabilitation of branch lines of BR
Among the mentioned projects, most of the projects are likely to implement before pre-schedule deadline. Meanwhile, the government is sensitizing for the rapid implementation of the rest projects.
Projects and Programmes that will be implemented in future
1. Survey and construction of Laksham-Dhaka Chord Line
2. Rehabilitation of branch line and Fouzdarhat-Chittagong Port yard including Chittagong port area
3. Development of Chittagong-Khulna stations
4. Introduction of meter-gauge line from Jamuna Bridge to Bogra
5. Conversion of Tongi-Bhairab and Laksham-Chinki Asatana tracks into double-line
6. Survey of Dohazari Cox's Bazar-Gundum-Myanmar rail-line
7. Procurement of 70 meter-gauge and 31 broad-gauge locomotives
8. Study on the introduction of subway rail-line in capital city Dhaka
9. Opening of 200 miter-gauge and 60 broad-gauge passengers coach.
10. Procurement of 200 flat wagon and tank wagon for transporting containers and aviation fuel
11. Increase the number of commuter trains
12. Reconstruction of Rajshahi Rahanpur and Amnura-Chapainowabgonj section
13. Development of Lalmonirhat railway station and renovation of Lalmonirhat-Burimari rail-line.
Bangladesh Railway will certainly be able to play a significant role in country's communications system if the above mentioned projects could be implemented in right time. I, in the beginning of my write up mentioned that railway is nothing but a service-oriented organization.
We need continuous support from our valued passengers, countrymen, business community and railway employees for overall development of railway. At the same time, all should consider the sector as a vital one and attitude towards the sector should be from patriotic point of view.