A writ petition has been filed in the High Court challenging the validity of Bangladesh Railway’s ticketing contract with Shohoz.com, citing public inconvenience and lack of transparency.
Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Miazi Alamgir Alam Chowdhury submitted the petition on Tuesday, following the expiry of a legal notice period.
The petition seeks cancellation of the contract signed on February 15, 2022, between Bangladesh Railway and Shohoz.com, which currently manages the railway’s online ticketing system.
The move comes amid growing public frustration over ticket availability and system overloads.
Earlier, on October 30, Chowdhury sent a legal notice via registered post to the secretaries of the railway, law, and planning ministries, as well as the director general and additional director general (operations) of Bangladesh Railway, and the managing director of Shohoz.com.
The notice warned that a writ would be filed if no action was taken within seven days.
In his statement, Chowdhury alleged that the ticketing website frequently crashes, sells out popular tickets within minutes, and imposes restrictive conditions that hinder passengers’ right to travel freely.
He cited recent remarks by the Sylhet deputy commissioner, who said: “Tickets finish in two minutes; this cannot be a system.”
The notice demanded public disclosure of the contract’s terms, immediate suspension of the agreement, and cancellation of the fully online ticketing system.
It also called for reinstating a hybrid model combining e-ticketing and manual sales under direct Railway oversight.