Proposal and Company Profile:

Bangladesh Railways

Prepared For: Sheikh Morshed Jahan Associate Professor Course Instructor Business Strategy

Prepared by: Reza Ahmed Ridwan ZR 04 Rifat Hasan ZR 13 Reaz Uddin Ahmed ZR 19 Nabeel Khan ZR 29 Mrinmoya Kanti Das ZR 35

Institue of Business Administration University of Dhaka Date: 20/08/ 2013

Bangladesh Railway (reporting mark BR), is the state-owned rail transport agency of Bangladesh. It operates and maintains the entire railway network of the country. BR is controlled by the Directorate General of Bangladesh Railway under the Ministry of Railways along with Bangladesh Railway Authority (BRA) and which works for policy guidance of BR. Bangladesh Railway covers a length of 2,855 route kilometers and employs 34,168 people. BR operates international, inter-city and suburban rail systems on its multi-gauge network. It also owns coach production facilities.

Organizational structure :
Post independence, the railway was first supervised by a Railway Board which was abolished in 1982. Thereafter, the BR came under the jurisdiction of the Railway Division of the Ministry of Communications with the Secretary of the Division working as the Director General of BR. In 1995, instead of being the part of the Ministry, BR came under control of a professional Director General supervised by the Bangladesh Railway Authority that is chaired by the Minister of Communications. BR is divided into two zones, East & West, each under control of a general manager who is accountable to the Director General of Bangladesh Railway. The two zones have their separate departments for operation, maintenance, and finances. Each zone is divided into two divisions that contain departments for Personnel, Transportation, Commercial, Finance Mechanical, Way and Works Signaling & Telecommunication, Electrical, Medical, etc. Each zone also has its Workshop Divisions, located at Pahartali and Saidpur respectively. A locomotive workshop is located at Parbatipur for broad and metre gauge locomotives. BR manages its own Railway Training Academy. A separate Directorate under the Ministry of Communications is charged to inspect different works of BR in relation to safety.

Bangladesh Railway provides various types of services ranging from shuttle service for university students to freight and cargo service. But still BR could not make profit as it is providing services to the nation at a subsidized rate in order to help the country's economy and for the ease of people.

Vision: To provide safe, reliable, cost effective and time efficient rail transport service in the country through modernizing, expanding & maintaining rail system in a manner which supports government strategies for economic, social & environmental development.

Mission:
1.Develop & maintain railway tracks & station infrastructures throughout the country. 2. Maintain & upgrade locomotives, coaches & other rolling stocks. 3. Maintain & modernize signaling & interlocking system & Telecon system of Bangladesh Railway. 4. Ensure safe, speedy & efficient train operation. 5. Implement Government transport policy in rail sector. 6. Procure modern technology related rolling stocks, track materials & signaling systems suitable for Bangladesh Railway. 7. Manage land asset of Bangladesh Railway. 8. Ensure optimum utilization of Development Budget & Revenue Budget of Bangladesh Railway.

Organogram of BR :

Passenger service
Bangladesh Railway is one of the principal modes of transportation in the country. During 2004-2005, about 42 million passengers were transported by Bangladesh Railway. Bangladesh Railway introduced Intercity Train services in 1985. At present there are 54 Intercity Trains running. Around 38.5% of the total passengers of Bangladesh Railway are being carried by the Intercity trains which contribute approximately 73.3% of the total earnings of passenger traffic.

Maitree Express: First International Train Service

The Maitree Express or Moitri Express or Dhaka-Kolkata Express is an International passenger train serving the railway connecting the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka and the Indian state West Bengal's capital Kolkata. This is the only railway link between the cities of the two nations and has been revived after being closed for 43 years. The name Maitree Express means the Friendship Express, denoting the significance of the train service to the foreign relations between India and Bangladesh. The inauguration of the train service was held on the occasion of the Bengali New Year on April 14, 2008.

Accommodation classes
Bangladesh Railway features mainly three classes of Travel. Air Conditioned Class, First Class and Second Class are available in BR. Third Class was withdrawn with effect from August 1, 1989. Most of the trains have the First Class and Second Class only. Second Class is divided into Shovon Chair, Shovon, and Shulov sub-classes. In some trains a separate mail compartment is present. In Inter-City and long-distance trains, a pantry car and a power car is included in the center. All Inter-City trains are partially airconditioned, feature padded leather seats and berths and provide passengers with on-demand sheets, pillows, blankets, as well as meals and refreshments.

Fares and ticketing

BR Fares are relatively cheaper than the bus fares. Ticketing services are available at all railway stations across Bangladesh. All railway stations are not computerized but most of them are computerized and connected to a central network. Printed tickets are provided to the passengers. Tickets can be bought 10 (ten) days before the journey. 100% (excluding clerical charge) refund is available if the ticket is returned 48hrs prior to departure. Ticket(s) can also be purchased through mobile phone.

Freight and cargo service

Bangladesh Railway has been facing tough competition with other modes of transport for the high rated traffic, which pay more revenue. As a national carrier, BR is obliged to carry essential commodities like food grains, fertilizer, jute, cement, coal, iron and steel, stone & boulders, petroleum products, salt, sugar etc. to the remote corners of the country at a cheaper rate. The freight traffic during 2004-2005 was 3,206 thousand Metric Tons. Bangladesh Railway transports containers from Chittagong to Dhaka. Special type Flat Wagons required for container movement were initially arranged by converting some existing wagons. Subsequently 80

bogie container flats were procured from China and another 100 bogie container flats were procured from India. An Inland Container Depot has been opened at Dhaka with custom and port facilities for clearance of container traffic. Exclusive container train was introduced on 5 August 1991. Since then, volume of container traffic gained momentum.

Railway Ferry Service

There were 25 marine vessels under Mechanical Department at the end of 2004-2005. The fleet of the marine vessels consists of 2 Passenger vessels, 4 Tugs, 4 Wagon Ferry Barges, 5 Pontoon ramps, 5 Flats and 5 Berthing flats.

Locomotives
Diesel: Bangladesh Railway's fleet of diesel locomotives includes both diesel-electric and dieselhydraulic machines.[12] Fleet at 30 June 2005. Steam: A small number of steam locomotives is preserved in Bangladesh.

Existing Railway Stations:

Kamalapur Railway Station, the central railway station in Dhaka. Bangladesh Railway had a total of 454 railway stations at the end of the year 2004-05. These include one block hut, thirteen train halts and four goods booking points.

Timeline:
2006: $430m plan to upgrade railways in Bangladesh 2007: Sonadia, an island 7 km west of Cox's Bazaar seems likely to be chosen as a deep water port 2009: Canarail to advise on duplication Laksam to Chinki Astana of Dhaka to Chittagong line 2010: Funding awarded for a bridge over Titas River.[20] Also, in September 2010, the government of Bangladesh approved 10 rail development projects worth a total of 199bn taka; these include plans for new tracks and new rolling stock. 2011: A link across several rivers to Cox's Bazaar has been started, with completion by 2013. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina officially launched construction the link. The 100 kilometer gauge line will start from the current railhead at Dohazari, southeast of Chittagong, and run to Satkania, Dulahazra, Chakarin, Edgaon, Ramu and Cox's Bazar, with four major river bridges. A 28 kilometre branch will run from Ramu to Gundum.

Railway links with adjacent countries:

There are bi-weekly passenger train services to India. The Maitri Express between Dhaka and Kolkata started in April 2008 using the Gede-Darsana route. In addition there is a goods train service from Singhabad and Petrapole in India to Rohanpur and Benapole in Bangladesh, respectively. A new rail link between Agartala, India and Akhaura was approved by the Government of India in September 2011. There is no link to Burma yet.

Bangladesh Railway:
Objectives of the study:
1. Finding out the current scenario

Rationale: Finding out the current scenario is the 1st step towards understanding the company. So, well look into the current practices, malpractices, functions of different divisions of the company and other related fields to get a clear picture of Bangladesh Railway.
2. Finding out the causes of loss and poor performance:

Rationale: Focusing on the constant poor performance of railway over the years and trying to find out the causes behind it and why the causes are so deep rooted that they cant be fixed.
3. Devising a plan to improve the image of Railway

Rationale: To cater more passengers and to be a 1st class service, it needs to improve its brand image. Well try to come up with a branding strategy to position railway as a 1 st class passenger carrier across the country and beyond.
4. Devising a plan to improve the financial condition of Railway

Rationale: Although it is a public organization it should at least improve the SROI and then focus on improving the ROI. Well also try to provide with solutions as to how the financial condition.
5. Devising a holistic strategy to make Bangladesh Railway a successful organization

Rationale: Since railway carries the most number of passengers every year and its performance is very crucial, well be trying to find out the proper strategy that fits Bangladesh Railway and make it a better organization both financially and objective wise.

Methodology:
Well be doing our study based on both primary and secondary data. For primary data, well conduct some interviews with railway officials, govt. employees, passengers and experts. For secondary data well look for recent research papers on railway plus newspaper articles, online journals and so on.

Scope:
There will be availability of data regarding the current situation of the service. We can talk and find out about the poor quality services that it provides. We can also find out the reasons behind this. But the scope will be limited in terms of recent financial performance. Also the govt. officials might give us overstated information about the performance of railway. But we believe there are lots to be studied and done to improve the condition of Bangladesh Railway.