YET another train collision in Lalmonirhat lays bare the appalling state of railway safety, constrained by mismanagement and institutional negligence. Two air-conditioned compartments of the Lalmoni Express derailed after it had collided with the Burimari鈥揚arbatipur commuter train in the BDR Gate area on July 28. The incident left at least eight passengers injured, two of them critically. The express train, being led to the wash pit outside the Lalmonirhat station, was reportedly on the railway when the commuter train rammed it. The derailment halted all train services on the Lalmonirhat鈥揃urimari section and had halted road traffic in the municipal area for several hours. Fire service units and army personnel began rescue operations, but train services had been suspended for the rest of the day. While a committee has been formed to investigate the incident, this is cold comfort to passengers and residents repeatedly subjected to a railway system that cannot ensure safety standards.
This incident is no isolated event, but part of a persistent pattern of railway mismanagement and systemic neglect. The fact that a moving train could collide with another inside a municipal boundary raises serious questions about operational oversight and communication problems between station authorities. In this case, a failure to ensure a secure routing of an outbound train led to a direct collision, placing passengers at avoidable risk. The recurrence of such accidents, compounded by derailment, outdated rolling stock and poorly maintained infrastructure, underscores the fragility of the railway system. In May, the daily operations performance report of the railway said that of 2,016 carriages, 46 per cent are in operation, but they have served out their shelf life long ago. Railways are reported to be in a state of disrepair. While 28 railway development projects involving more than Tk 1.4 lakh crore are reportedly under way, implementation remains sluggish, with little visible improvement in daily operations or passenger safety. Successive governments have prioritised road infrastructure over railway, leaving the sector under-funded and over-stretched. Safety lapses, especially those linked to signalling, have resulted in numerous accidents in recent years, with 419 deaths, over 4,900 accidents and more than 2,000 injuries recorded in 2005鈥�2020.
The government should not treat the incident at hand as an administrative inconvenience but as a call for urgent reforms needed to ensure safety and ensure accountability in railway operations. Immediate investment, strict enforcement of operational protocols and fast implementation of railway projects are imperative if the railway authorities want to ensure passenger safety.
