Assessing Railway Property Theft and Developing Engineering Protection Mechanisms: A case Study of Addis Ababa Light Railway Transport Service Enterprise and Ethio-Djibouti Railway

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Date

2024-06

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Addis Ababa University

Abstract

Ethio-Djibouti railway line run from Addis Ababa to Negad, the port of Djibouti. Ethiopia also built light railway transport in Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia. The construction of this rail infrastructure is essential for the development of both countries. However, after the operation start both the Addis Ababa light railway transport service and Ethio- Djibouti railway lines faced so many challenges due to different safety and security issues including theft on their property that challenge the transport service. The seriousness of theft in railway industry cannot be ignored. It highly deserves immediate notice and action. The curse's accompanying damages to the railway property are irreversible. Theft related issues cause businesses to lose millions of dollars' worth of property. This paper aimed to identify and set solutions to these major problems by developing protection mechanisms. The study further identifies the characteristics and the leading causes that motivates criminals to railway property theft. Quantitative methodological approach was adopted to accomplish this work. Both primary and secondary data were used as a source of information for the study. Primary data was taken from participants by using questionnaire survey. Secondary data was taken from AALRTSE and Ethio-Djibouti railway recorded data on occurrence of theft over the year 2018 to 2023. Quantitative analysis was conducted for both primary and secondary data sources. There were 2233 occurrence of theft to railway assets over the study period. The characteristics of criminals and property theft was identified. Numerous hotspot areas have been discovered using the information. This paper also presents that availability of scrap metal dealers and poor enforcement of law against criminals are among the top most leading cause to railway property theft and then developing solutions to prevent this issue. Previous literatures are failed to set solutions as the culture of the given systems. Due to the limited literatures related to railway property theft, developing new protection mechanisms are taken to solve the issues on railway. The findings will guide efforts to improve the safety and security of railway asset. The study recommends that the railway industry to develop a multi-stakeholder partnership strategy. In conclusion, the extra loss of costs by the Ethiopian railway industry is eliminated and solved. Once the security problems are solved the maintenance costs will be reduced once the location is identified providing the possible solution for the find out problems.

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Keywords

Infrastructure, protection, railway, theft, transport

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