World Bank Country Director Christine I Wallich spoke of the Bank's expectation while addressing a press conference at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel yesterday.

"When I first came to Bangladesh, I had visited some border areas and found the possibility of such a railway linkage," she said referring to the railway link between India and Pakistan.

The press conference was organised to brief the journalists about the outcome of a daylong seminar titled `The Future of Bangladesh Railways: Learning from International Experience'. The World Bank organised the seminar at the same venue.

Programme director of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) Dr M Rahmatullah, who moderated the seminar, gave a brief outline of the findings and recommendations at the press conference.

He said there has been no revision and re-evaluation in the fare chart of the Bangladesh Railway (BR) since 1992.

Besides, the BR also did not get any considerable amount of investment since the country's independence, he added.

The CPD researcher pointed out that BR is responsible to bear all its maintenance costs, including preserving the carriages and tracks, but the road sector is not obliged to do the same.

"All these have created adverse impact on the railway system of the country," he said, adding that the sector needs to go for restructuring to increase its efficiency.

BR director general KMA Rob admitted the dilapidated state of the entire railway sector. "Our tracks are in very bad shape and that's why the trains cannot attain the desired speed," he said.

He informed that the BR authorities are going to procure 100 carriages and 30 air-conditioned coaches by December next.

Christine Wallich said the road sector in Bangladesh faces three major challenges - expanding roads requiring large-scale land acquisition, road safety is a major concern as accident claims 8-10 people everyday and the road transport has major environmental externalities.

She said the railway, by contrast, can be expanded with little land acquisition and is more environmentally sustainable.