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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 8
Publication Date: August 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.88.10650. Nishat, A. J., Mukharjee, S. K., & Victorovna, A. O. (2021). Status of Service Delivery System of Bangladesh Railway: An Empirical
Study. Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 426-437.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Status of Service Delivery System of Bangladesh Railway: An
Empirical Study
Md. Abu Jakaria Nishat
Department of Economics and Enterprise Management
Moscow State University of Technology “STANKIN” (MSUT STANKIN)
Shanjay Kumar Mukharjee
Asistant Professor
Department of Public Administration and Governance Studies
Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Trishal, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
Avakova Olga Victorovna
Ph.D. in Philosophy
Associate Professor
Department of Foreign Language
Moscow State University of Technology “STANKIN” (MSUT STANKIN)
ABSTRACT
The Bangladeshi Railway was given the name after the country gained
independence in 1971. Even so, it had a history dating more than a century before
that. By the turn of the century, it had just about 37 diesel-hydraulic and 231 diesel- electric locomotives. These ran about 100 coaches and 10900 freight wagons. This
number has presently increased and it serves in a network of broad-gauges, dual- gauge and meter-gauge in around 440 railway stations. The public sector runs
various transport modes like the Biman Bangladesh Airline, taxis, ferries, buses and
other means that move freight around and out of Bangladesh. With a capacity to
transport more than 60% of freight around Bangladesh, the public sector transport
quite overshadows the BR, which suffers a number of challenges that cripple it to
date. These challenges range in nature from lack of sufficient funds to operate the
railway, to a poor railway network, part of which may be attributed to the Indo- Pakistan War that ground the services to a halt back between the 1960s and 1970s.
Moreover, ongoing, coronavirus pandemic is proving to be another challenge that
has grounded the normal operations at BR. The research has been conducted by a
field survey using a structural and semi-structural questionnaires and face-to-face
interview. A set of (---) questionnaires were given to (----) stakeholder at various
levels at almost all the junctions in Mymensingh to observe the practical service
delivery experiences of the railway sector. Over the survey a plethora of
experiences have been gained which is givens as findings in this article and we have
given some recommendations which will make this sector stronger.
Keywords: Bangladesh Railway, railway services, public sector, rail gauges, passenger
services
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427
Nishat, A. J., Mukharjee, S. K., & Victorovna, A. O. (2021). Status of Service Delivery System of Bangladesh Railway: An Empirical Study. Advances in
Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(8). 426-437.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.88.10650
INTRODUCTION
The public sector is important in any given country. Rail connectivity is of great importance for
economic growth and regional development of Bangladesh.
There are two main types of existing railway services offered by BR. Firstly is passenger service
and secondly the cargo service. Many citizens use the railway for transportation every year. In
the 2014-15 year a roughly 67 million people were transported by BR, which increased
compared to 65 million passengers in the 2013-14 period (Ahsan, Rahman & Hayder, 2016). To
improve the delivery of services to passengers, the agency introduced inter-city train services
in the mid-1980s. Currently, there are over 90 inter-city trains in operation. About 41% of the
Bangladesh Railway passengers are being transported by inter-city trains, contributing an
estimated 84% of the total earning of passenger traffic (Bangladesh Railway Company DLCA,
2021). To be appealing to passengers as well as enhance the overall standard of services, the
railway agency introduced a variety of online services in addition to other developments
(Results Management Team, 2016).
As freight and cargo services the railway usually relied up when it comes to transporting
traditional low-rated essential goods. These include salt, petroleum products, boulders and
stones, sugar, as well as steel and iron. Others are coal, jute, fertilizer, food grains, and cement
(Ahsan, Rahman & Hayder, 2016). It mainly carries cargo containers between Dhaka and
Chattogram. The railway agency has developed new Inland Container Depots (ICDs) and
increased the speed of operations.
While it is critical to recognize the importance of railway services during this challenging time
with the coronavirus pandemic, it is imperative to note that the organization has come up with
ways of offering services regardless of the state of affairs. The Dhaka Tribune (2021) reports
that the Dhaka – Sylhet route, Chittagong – Sarishabari, Khulna – Chilahati and the Bir
Muktijoddha Shirajui Islam – Dhaka routes will be organized so that they work on a schedule of
delivering both agricultural produce and a controlled number of passengers so that the lives of
the Bangladeshi people is not interrupted as badly as the pandemic can cause it to be. All these
have been scheduled to run concurrently with the current lockdown that is aimed at reducing
the cases of coronavirus infections that have been increasing steadily in the past few weeks
(Dhaka Tribune, 2021).
Additionally, there are concerted efforts between the Bangladeshi government, working in
synergy with the Indian government, to reintroduce train services between Dhaka and other
routes within Bangladesh. These will augment service provision between routes like Petrapole
and Benapole. Other routes between Bangladesh and India will include Gede – Darshana,
Singhabad – Rohanpur and Radhikapur – Birol. All these have been fully discussed between the
heads of states of the two countries. According to The Mint online edition (March, 2021), Modi
and Hasina even commissioned a passenger train that would run between the two countries
(PTI, 2021).
LITERATURE REVIEW
The importance of users’ perception has been highlighted and prioritized by numerous
researchers in the context of service quality assessment of Bangladesh Railway sector. A study
conducted by the Steer Devise of London on the railway passenger service quality evaluation
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 8, August-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
carried out between the period June 2019-June 2020 was prepared for shadow strategic rail
authority to study the importance of rail way passengers into improvement of the range and
quality of facilities and service on stations and in trains. The study is manly to focus on
monetary valuation of the improvement of service for a number of passenger groups. The aim
of the research is to provide some robust parameters which can be used in different
circumstances of assessment of railway services. To conduct the railway passenger quality
valuation process to identify the responsible attributes regarding the passenger quality about
21 attributes are used frequently.
A structural equation model was developed by Eboil and Mazzulla to explore the importance of
the relation between global customer satisfaction and service quality attributes. To analyze the
correlation between quality attributes and identify the most convenient attributes for
improving the supplied service their model is useful for transport agencies and planners. They
identified the service characteristics like punctuality; regularity and frequency of runs, and
cleanliness have the highest positive effect, on service quality.
Ona, Ebila and Mazzulla analyzed the transit service quality on the basis of the perceptions
directly expressed by the passengers of the service and identified windows and doors working
courtesy and competence on Board, information at station, punctuality of runs courtesy and
competence in station and regularity of runs as the most inertial factors for ensuring service
quality. A three-column format SERVQUAL instrument was developed and empirically tested
by Cavana and Corbett to evaluate the passenger railway service quality.
To establish relationships between rail passengers’ satisfaction and service quality, Eboil and
Mazzulla experimented with introduction of indicators, explaining the endogenous latent
variable different from the traditionally used indicators.
In spite of a conducted a large number of studies to evaluate the factors which directly affect
the service quality of RW station based on perception of passengers in developing countries, a
handful of studies have been found in developing countries.
A study conducted by Vishnuvar and Selvaraj on salem division of southern railway of India
identified provision of ticketing machines, water vending machines, platform shelters at
stations, pay and use toilets, provision of improved cost effective lighting good retiring rooms
with modern furniture, coach indication boards, signage, security and enquiry counters as the
crucial factors for evaluating service quality of railway.
Customer’s satisfaction of India’s railway platform and customer behavior factors has been
determined by Geetika for determining satisfaction with railway platform. A framework for
assessing the impact of Service Quality Management practice on Indian Railway has been
presented by Prasad Shekhar.
However, the study of this type on RW sector is absolute unfamiliar in Bangladesh. A handful of
research have been conducted on assessing the service quality of RW service in Bangladesh. A
study conducted by Rahman and Rahman focused on the RW transportation sector and
developed a model during the relation between overall satisfaction and service quality
attributes in a selective route from Khulna to Rajshahi to reinforce further improvement