Railway officials of Bangladesh and India signed an accord yesterday that would allow passengers of the Dhaka-Kolkata train service to buy round-trip tickets from both city.
The new arrangement will come into effect from May 16, six years after the launch of the Maitree Express, the only direct train service between Bangladesh and India.
At present, passengers travelling on the Maitree Express must buy tickets for both outward and return journeys separately in respective cities.
Under the new agreement, passengers would be able to buy return tickets from Dhaka’s Kamalapur station and from Kolkata’s Fairly Palace station.
Sarder Shahadat Ali, joint director general (operation) of Bangladesh Railway, and A Madhukumar Reddy, executive director (passenger marketing) of the Railway Board, New Delhi, inked the agreement.
“This will help the passengers very much. The hassle of collecting separate tickets from two stations will go,” Shahadat Ali told the Dhaka Tribune.
Meanwhile, to cancel a return ticket and get refund, passengers must inform the railway authorities 39 hours before the journey.
The Maitree Express, which runs four times a week, has 326 seats on the Bangladeshi train and 388 seats on the Indian train. The BR train starts from Dhaka Cantonment station at 8.10 am on Fridays and returns a day later. The IR train leaves Kolkata’s Chitpur station at 7.10 am local time on Tuesdays and goes back the next day. A one-way trip across the 396 km distance takes about 10 and a half hours