Kamran Reza Chowdhury
bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent
Dhaka, Dec 11 (bdnews24.com) --- Conventional wisdom says trains operated under private management fetch the railway more revenues.
That thinking may have to change. A recent example shows a state-run commuter train earning double the revenue of a private operator that ran the same train for over five years.
Last Wednesday, Bangladesh Railway ran the 47/48 Dewanganj commuter train under its commercial operation and earned Tk 1. 44 lakh.
But private operator M K Engineering Works would pay Tk 52,000 a day for five and a half years for running the train that shuttles between Dhaka and Dewangaj (Jamalpur) via Mymensingh.
It means the railway counted Tk 92,000 in lost revenue each day for one train, if Wednesday's figure is anything to go by.
Since 1999-2000, the railway handed over 83 passenger mail and local trains to private operators to increase revenues.
"It is quite interesting that the train (47/48 Dewanganj Commuter) earned Tk 92,000 more in one day than it did under the private operator," Quazi Asadullah, railway's additional director general (operations), told bdnews24.com on Thursday.
"We will continue with commercial operations of the train until its handover to another operator through open tender," he said.
Officials say the train was given to M K Engineering Works in 2004 for four years as per a deal. Initially, the company used to pay Tk 7,050 per day for running the train between Mymensingh and Dewanganj in Jamalpur.
Next year, the train started running betwen Dhaka and Dewanganj and the company agreed to pay Tk 43,000 a day. The railway then increased charge to Tk 47,000 per day. A few months later, the company willingly hiked the rental to Tk 52,000.
However, the company filed a writ petition at the High Court last year as the railway declined to extend the contract. It contended that it was entitled to get the contract extended for two more years as per the deal, according to a letter sent by the private operator.
"The deal says the contract can be extended only if both the railway and the company agree. They were interested, but we were not," said Asadullah.
The High Court ordered a status quo regarding the train's operation until a hearing on it took place. On Dec 7, it heard the case and lifted the status quo which authorised the railway to regain commercial control of the train.
The railway regained the management control of the train and started operating it on Dec 9.
But the private company on Dec 8 again appealed to the court for one more hearing since "they were absent" at the Dec 7 hearing.
The court last Wednesday again issued a status quo order, which means that the train will be running under the railway's commercial management until the next hearing.
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