MR Amin, Chittagong

Losses and Bangladesh Railway hold each other's hands and their path is like ages. The modern 30 engines imported from Korea's Hyundai Rotem to overcome the locomotive (engine) crisis of Bangladesh Railways have now become a burden of the Railways.

After 2 years, it has become obsolete. Bangladesh Railway does not have the capacity to repair it. This government service organization is in trouble with these engines of Tk 1148 crore 20 lakhs. Unable to swallow, unable to throw up the situation prevails. Several reliable sources informed this.

According to the source, the life time of the engine imported from Korea's Hyundai Rotem in 2021 is estimated to be 20 years, but due to minor accidents, 5 have already been addressed in the Workshop (Dieselshop). In this, there is no possibility of running the 2 engines in Kelka due to unavailability of spare parts and technical ignorance. And efforts are being made to fix the faults of the 3 engines in Chittagong's Pahartali. But parts are not available.

Again, 2 out of 4 motors out of 10 engines have been damaged, as a result, they cannot run at full speed with 2 motors. If the line is a bit high somewhere, there are incidents like stopping on the road. Gaining speed to cross the bridge.

The remaining 15 are in progress. As these engines are of new technology, there are no experienced engineers in the railways to work on them. But there are many old engines which are 40 years old and still running well.

Engineer Etisam Md.Shafiq , Working Manager of Chittagong's hilltop diesel shop confirmed these issues said the authorities were wrong in importing 30 engines from Korea's Hyundai Rotem.

As this technology is new, our technicians do not have the experience to operate and maintain it. They should have provided adequate training to the technicians first. But instead of doing that, they have taken officers on foreign tours, which will not be useful in management. We have 6 departments working for each engine and at least one technician or engineer should have been trained from these 6 departments, but it was not done. As a result, there is a shortage of people with experience in maintenance or repair work. Even minor errors cannot be repaired. But they have a 3 year warranty for repairs. They are supposed to repair according to the conditions. We informed them about our problem. They could not send the proposal yet due to shipment complications. Uncertain when they will be sent and when they will come to work. When asked if the warranty period will expire when the proposal arrives, he said it could happen. Then we will be in danger with them. And the parts of these engines are not available anywhere else except with them. So we have no choice but to wait for them.
According to another source, these engines have been purchased on the spur of the moment to grab a hefty commission without doing any feasibility study. Former Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan handled the matter. He did not care about the opinion of engineers. Even PDK was not allowed to speak. The then DG aligned with the minister's Ekwemi. Yes Sir, Railways is facing this danger today for officers of the Yes Sir type.

Sources said that 30 meter gauge engines were imported from Korea to solve the railway locomotive crisis. The series of which is fixed from 3001 to 3030. On May 17, 2018, the Ministry of Railways entered into an agreement with South Korea's Hyundai Rotem to purchase S engines. 10 locomotives (engines) were brought in the first phase in August 2021 at a cost of Tk 297 crore 63 lakh financed by Korean Exim Bank. Later, in another project, 20 more locomotives were purchased at a cost of 841 crores 23 lakhs.

In this regard, General Manager (GM) of Bangladesh Railway Eastern Region Nazmul Islam said, few locomotives engines of Hyundai Rotem have been damaged and repair work is going on. It will be added to the fleet if approved.

In this regard, Chief Operating Superintendent (COPS) of Bangladesh Railway Eastern Region. Shahidul Islam said, we have a lot of engine shortages, I thought that Hyundai engines would help a lot in reducing the shortage. But now I see that many of these are ruined. It would be great if they could be made suitable for movement, otherwise it is necessary to import new engines