Problems dog railway east's workshop

With antiquated machinery, shabby infrastructure, and half of the required workforce, the Carriage and Wagon Repair Workshop of Bangladesh Railway's East Zone in Chittagong city has been tottering for more than a decade now.

The problems have been persisting because of delay in the implementation of a development project, initially taken up in 2007. Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) and the Bangladesh government will fund it.

Sources at the workshop, established on 35 acres of land in Pahartali in 1947, said the lifespan of 437, out of 449 pieces of machinery, had expired and their efficiency was dwindling.

The workshop has 20 shops, mostly tin-roofed, and the roofs of many of them have developed large holes, letting rainwater pour into the machinery.

During the monsoon, some shops even get waterlogged because of a poor drainage system occasionally suspending repair works, said the staff.

According to official records, the workshop is presently run by 1,158 staff while there are posts for 2,128. Of them, 52 are officials and the rest workers.

Officials said the present workforce was too small to carry out the routine maintenance of around 930 coaches and 7,000 freight train wagons of the east zone covering Dhaka, Chittagong, and Sylhet divisions.

Wishing anonymity, an official said only one coach (which makes two units) could be taken care of a day when the demand was for five units. As a result, around 500 coaches remain unattended annually, he added.

To mitigate the manpower crisis, 142 new employees have been recently recruited into the workshop, said Md Harun-ar-Rashid, chief mechanical engineer of the east zone.

In addition, for overall development of the workshop and nearby Diesel Electric Locomotive Repairing Workshop, the "Improvement of Pahartali Workshop" project was taken up in 2007, said Harun, also the project director.

On January 20 this year, the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) approved the two-year project worth Tk 217 crore, of which Jica will give Tk 175 crore and the government the rest, he said.

The PD said the project was delayed because qualified bidders were not found, but he hoped it would get rolling in three or four months.

Under the project, the infrastructure of the shops will be developed, over-aged machinery will be replaced with modern equipment, and the drainage system and damaged railway trucks will be improved, he added.