Bangladesh Railway (BR) on Wednesday said they would start selling tickets in advance to ease homebound passengers’ journey from March 3, ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr, putting in service five pairs of special trains to the existing operational fleet.
“Advance tickets for the Eid journey will be sold from March 3 to March 9, and all tickets will be sold online,” a BR spokesman said, emerging from a decision-making meeting at Railway Bhaban.
He said that the BR has decided to operate five pairs of special trains in addition to the regular ones on this occasion to evade congestion in railway carriages and ease travel.
According to the BR decision, tickets for trains operating in the western and eastern zones will be released at different times.
Tickets for intercity trains in the western zone will be available online at 8am, while tickets for eastern zone trains will be released at 2pm.
The BR spokesman said passengers could buy advance train tickets 10 days ahead of their planned journey, meaning people intending to travel on March 13 could collect their tickets on March 3, or those who want to embark on March 14 could procure tickets on March 4.
“A passenger can purchase a maximum of four tickets at a time,” the spokesman said.
The meeting decided that BR would start selling advance return tickets as well, depending on the moon sighting, fixing the exact date of Eid al-Fitr in line with the Arabic lunar calendar.
“The return advance tickets too will be sold 10 days ahead of the scheduled journey,” he said.
The five special train pairs will run on specific routes, which were named as Chandpur Eid Special (1 and 2) on the Chittagong-Chandpur route,
Teesta Special (3 and 4) on the Dhaka-Dewanganj route, Sholakia Eid Special (5, 6, 7 and 8) on the Bhairabbazar-Kishoreganj and Mymensingh-Kishoreganj route and Parbatipur Eid Special (9 and 10) on the Joydebpur-Parbatipur route.
The BR said round-the-clock extra security arrangements would be made at all major stations, including those in the capital, suburban Joydebpur, southeastern Chittagong, northern Mymensingh, northeastern Sylhet, northwestern Rajshahi and southwestern Khulna.
According to officials, paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and para-police Ansar personnel would be engaged to enforce a vigil alongside regular police, its railways unit called GRP (General Railway Police), and BR’s own RNB (Railway Nirapatta Bahini).
The security people would also debar ticketless people from entering the stations.
