Bangladesh Railway (BR) has decided to make direct contribution in keeping the markets of key essential commodities stable and easily accessible to the city consumers, officials said.
As part of the plan, authority of the country's cheapest transportation system will procure 125 luggage vans of different categories to transport vegetables, meat, fish, and milk to the capital from major sourcing hubs of the items.
Hailing the initiative, traders and consumer rights activists opined that it will cut down transportation cost of the essentials by ensuring on-time delivery, and also help ensure their fresh supply.
BR additional director general (rolling stock) Md Shamsuzzaman said they have long been trying to introduce some special trains for carrying key essential items to the city.
Under the latest move, BR will procure 50 broad-gauge and 75 metre-gauge luggage vans for this purpose, he also said.
"Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to finance the project. Technical evaluation of the participating bidders is in progress and things will be finalised within the next two weeks."
Mr Shamsuzzaman said they have planned to start the special transportation once 40 broad-gauge locomotives, set to be procured from the US, arrive in the country.
"Our main objective is to ensure smooth supply of the key essentials to the city at a cheap cost," he added.
According to a BR study, nearly 35 per cent of the perishable items come to the city from Jessore zone, 30 per cent from Mymensingh region, and 30 per cent from Savar, Munshiganj, Gazipur, and Narsingdi areas.
BR general manager Md Harun-ar-Rashid said two of the proposed special trains will be operated from Khulna and Chapai Nawabganj to the city through Bangabandhu Bridge, and two others from Jamalganj Bazar of Mymensingh and Mohonganj of Netrokona.
Besides the special trains, some of the procured luggage vans will be added with the regular passenger trains on some routes to transport vegetables, the BR official further said.
"There will be some refrigerated vans to carry milk, meat and fishes from the major sourcing hubs," he added.
When contacted, Railway Minister Md. Nurul Islam Sujan said BR cargo service needs to be upgraded to ensure smooth supply of the commodities from across the country.
He also said the luggage vans will give some respite to traders and consumers by lessening the transportation cost of goods and reducing their prices.
"The government wants to make railway a pro-people transportation system here, like other developed and developing countries. We are working on that," he added.
President of Karwanbazar-based Bangladesh Vegetable Wholesalers Association Imran Ali Master said the move will significantly reduce carrying cost of various essentials.
He said the traders need to pay Tk 16,000 for transporting 15 tonnes of goods from Rangpur to the capital by road. But the cost will be one-third, if they can bring these by train.
"On-time delivery is another advantage that we can get from railway, which will undoubtedly impact the price scenario of essentials in the city markets," he added.
Hailing the latest initiative, President of Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) Ghulam Rahman emphasised its quick implementation, as people's expenditure to buy key essentials is increasing gradually.
He also focused on enhancing BR's operational capacity, so that people from other areas (besides the capital) can get its benefits.
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