The railway officials of Bangladesh and India will sign an agreement today, allowing the passengers of Maitree Express train to collect return tickets either from Dhaka or Kolkata.
At present, passengers travelling by this express train must collect tickets from Dhaka and Kolkata for a return journey.
For instance, a Kolkata-bound passenger must collect ticket from Dhaka’s Kamalapur railway station and buy the return ticket from Fairly Palace in the Paschimbanga capital.
If the proposed agreement is signed, the passengers from Dhaka can collect both Kolkata-bound and return ticket from Kamalapur railway station. Similarly, a passenger from Kolkata can collect both tickets from Fairly Palace.
Sarder Shahadat Ali, joint director general (operations) of the Bangladesh Railway, and A Madhukumar Reddy, executive director (passenger marketing) of the Railway Board, New Delhi, will sign the agreement at 3:30 pm at the railway building.
The proposed agreement will take effect from April 14, marking the six years of the launch of Maitree Express, the first and lone cross-boundary passenger train between Bangladesh and India.
Due to the war between India and Pakistan in 1965, the Dhaka-Kolkata train was snapped.
“This will facilitate the passengers very much; the hassle of collecting tickets from two stations will go,” Shahadat Ali told the Dhaka Tribune.
According to the agreement, anyone desiring to cancel the return ticket must inform the railway authorities of it 39 hours before the journey to get money back. But, the passengers must get money back from the counter from where they will buy tickets.
Maitree Express, now very popular among the passengers, has 326 seats in Bangladesh train and 388 seats in Indian train.
The Bangladeshi train departs from Dhaka cantonment station at 8:10 am (BST) on Fridays and return on Saturdays. The Indian train starts from Kolkata (Chitpur) station at 7:10 am (IST) on Tuesdays and goes back to Kolkata on Wednesdays.
The train takes 10 hours and 25 minutes to cross the 396 kilometres distance.