Embarking on railway carriage manufacture.

[bluesky]

What's this? "Demu trains"? What other gauge or gauges are we talking about here?

And perhaps different railways for people and goods.

In the U.S. we tried building one or two high-speed railway tracks fifty years ago. They worked fine for a bit, until freight trains - weighing ten times or more what a passenger train does - wore them out fast. Now we use Swedish tilt-trains for higher speeds but we are still decades behind much of the rest of the world when it comes to passenger train travel.

My expression was bad. Actually, I meant to say about the different modes for transportation, such as rail, road and water. It is not that I proposed two separate train lines for human and freight. Both will use the same track, certainly. Irrespective of the bad US experience, all the countries use the same track for passenger and freight.

I am surprised to hear about the bad experience in the USA, because the entire world tries to emulate US and British codes and standards. I think, the quality and weight per meter of steel for lines were insufficient that caused the erosion. US can learn from Japan's experience.

US itself is a vast Continent and sparsely populated. People use cars for short and medium distances, and planes for long distance. This is why the railway system could not be expanded and popularized. In case of a small and poor BD, it is the opposite. It is possible to popularize trains here, specially in and around Dhaka.

 

[Russell]

I believe, private companies should be offered the opportunity, where they will build the coaches successfully, efficiently and cheap. I also believe that the building of goods wagon should precede the coaches. It will provide the companies an opportunity to build a strong organization that will build the wagons cheap, efficiently and successfully. Wagons are less difficult to build.

For now, I find only one person in BD, Obaidul Qader, who is a very efficient minister. He understands how to tackle an engineering problem with engineering solution. He should be given the charge of this project if the govt finally decides to build the workshop under railway ministry. But, no one has eternal life.

1. Private entities in Bangladesh are pieces of sh1t. They will not build it cheaply. They will be handed contracts and then line a minister's pocket and not only will work be delayed, but prices will increase 2-3 fold. Those of us who live here, see this in action every day.

The 2 fly overs in Banani + Khilkhet were given to the Army - not only did they finish on time, but also on budget.

The moghbazar flyover (admittedly a much larger project) was given to the private sector - Toma constructions. They finished it 2 years past the deadline and the budget ended up being more than double. Many excuses were given and made, very few were valid. The rest were just a tactic to increase profits.


2. Life long AL supporter - but Obaidul Quader is more talk than substance. He talks a good game but, his actions don't always follow suit. He has been given a free hand by the PM...yet, his performance, while good...hasn't really stood out for me.

Rather State Ministers Palak and Hamid have been standout performers as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Nilgiri]

1. Private entities in Bangladesh are pieces of sh1t. They will not build it cheaply. They will be handed contracts and then line a minister's pocket and not only will work be delayed, but prices will increase 2-3 fold. Those of us who live here, see this in action every day.

See this is the problem I am talking about. BD has to find a way to resolve this kind of stuff. Simply having oligarch "private" entities that are extension of govt corruption (i.e work out some rotation/quota system among themselves like a cartel rather than compete tooth and nail in free market to deliver something and make a reasonable profit) is not going to allow BD to reach next threshold of development in time frame it desires....not with the ratio of natural resource/capital resource/population that BD has. There is reason why monopolies/oligarchies world over are connected to govt largesse in some way invariably (rather than free market which those same oligarchs attack through the media that they own etc).

Its tough doing the reform in bureaucracy in short enough time for results ppl want, so some inventive ministers are needed to bypass wherever possible, gather and delegate with some quality mid level officers with merit in mind and track and monitor with diverse set of independent feedback. Also set some helpful precedent legislatively as well in the courts (but those need to be improved as well). Status quo has high inertia in Bangladesh....this is one drawback in having very homogeneous population and political structure. Successful stories of private enterprise in India largely are on the backbone of having enough buffer and variety at bureaucratic/legislative level, at some point a state is going to get the formula "more right" than the grey average and run with it (and then others seek to copy how its done it as results come in normally 5 - 10 years later, but original state tends to have creator's benefit). This kind of decentralisation approach is needed for BD economy in the local govt structure....but RMG export quota model and BAL/BNP politics are making an unholy alliance in preserving status quo....and seems to be suffocating political space for more creative approach (which needs real fire to be held to feet politically).

 

[Bilal9]

Container transport using rail in both Pakistan and Bangladesh are in similar situation.

Interesting thing is that Bangladesh wants to move away from Meter-gauge Container transport on eastern side of the country to broad-gauge, that's why we are still operating both gauges.

The entire Eastern side of Bangladesh rail infra uses dual-gauge, which will eventually turn to broad-gauge trains and carriages.

Here is Pakistani broad gauge container train locomotive (engine) in CO-CO configuration (6 axles)

Here is Bangladeshi meter-gauge container locomotive in BO-0-BO configuration (two powered axles and one inactive per bogie in the middle).These are the same EMD locos that were delivered to East Pakistan Railway in 1953-56.

Thanks to our brilliant, dedicated and talented Railway engineers they are still running 50 years later. This is the Land container port in Dhaka loading container trains that will go directly to Chittagong port and get loaded onto ships using gantry cranes.

Rail container transport in Bangladesh is integrated into Road-container-transport as well as River-Container-transport. The latter is less than half the cost of transporting through rail and less than one-fourth than that of road. There is an Inland River Container Terminal at Pangaon which is being served by a feeder container vessel fleet carrying 176 TEUs each (some already built/commissioned - see below for pictures).
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This is the Inland port at Pangaon,

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Standard Design for 176 TEU Feeder Container Vessel owned by seven different local carriers so far.

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We used to manufacture passenger railway carriages at Saidpur since British times, but the corrupt ministers got busy lining their pockets buying carriages from various sources other than local after 1971. Very sad. It's good to hear we will start again. There was talk last year that India was going to supply equipment for this purpose to do BMRE at Saidpur and at Chittagong Carriage works.

Saw this sometime back,
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BR to resume manufacturing rail coaches, wagons

Md Taiyeb Ali Sarker, Nilphamari

Around 1,000 coaches and wagons are currently being repaired at the workshop in a year

Bangladesh Railway (BR) has planned to set up a new unit for manufacturing passenger coaches and freight wagons at Saidpur Railway Workshop.

The workshop officials have already finalised the Detailed Project Proposal (DPP) for the new shed that will have the capacity to produce 60 passenger coaches and freight wagons every year, according to sources.

The workshop has some 112-acre unused land at its premises while its excising 26 shops are now capable only to produce some spare parts of rail coaches.

Established in 1870, the workshop once moved into the manufacturing of coaches in the early years after the independence in 1971, but it was halted in 1993.

Around 1,000 coaches and wagons are currently being repaired at the workshop in a year.

However, the demand for rail coaches has ever been increasing and the BR is now heavily depending on imports from India and Indonesia to carry out the services.

A total of 440 freight wagons were purchased from India over the last three years, whereas 150 passengers coaches were brought from Indonesia over the same period.

Saidpur Railway Workshop’s Divisional Superintendent Mohammad Kudrat-e-Khuda said the project for the new manufacturing unit will breathe new life in the workshop’s operation.

Mokhsedul Momin, general secretary of Shramik Leagu’s Saidpur Railway Workshop unit, informed that it has been recommended that the funds for the proposed project could come from the Line of Credit that India had pledged for the development of the railway sector in Bangladesh.