Despite Bangladesh Railway has expanded its efforts to provide services in many parts of the country, its largest workshop in Saidpur upazila of Nilphamari district is unable to operate at full force owing to a crisis of workers.
Since its establishment, the workshop has played a crucial role in repairing and maintaining locomotives, carriages and wagons.
After independence, at least 10,000 workers were engaged across 22 shops within the workshop. However, the industry has been facing growing challenges due to an acute shortage of manpower.
Though the factory has essential machineries, but the crisis of skilled operators attributed poor production and maintenance of railway components. Currently, there are 29 shops in the facility, but at least 196 machines are remain inactive due to the shortage of workers.
According to local sources, only 710 employee are working in the factory, but there are total 2,859 positions in the factory. With just 25 per cent of the necessary workforce, the workshop can repair only 40 to 45 railway units per year.
However, to repair 890 coaches in the western region of the railway, 75 coaches need to be turned out every month. There are only 36 operators for 779 machines in various shops of the factory.
Khairul Bashar, a worker at the factory, expressed his concerns, stating, “We are forced to complete almost 80 per cent of works individually. We demand the recruitment of more skilled manpower, or else the quality of repairs will decline.”
Departmental caretaker of the workshop Mustofa Zakir Hasan said, "The factory is run without 75 per cent of workers. However, we expect to resolve this issue once the Phase-2 modernization project is completed and new manpower is recruited.”
AB/ST
