The sale of online tickets of Bangladesh Railway will remain suspended from March 21-25 for facilitating the handover of responsibilities to a new service provider.
Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said this at a press briefing at the Rail Bhaban in Dhaka on Monday.
During the period, all tickets will be sold manually from the counters.
The railways minister said a five-year agreement was signed with "Shohoz-Synesis-Vinsen JV" on February 15 to operate the ticketing system of the Bangladesh Railway. Earlier, CNS was involved in the work.
It will take five days to re-activate the computer ticketing system by "Shohoz" at 77 stations.
The computerized ticketing system of Bangladesh Railway will be re-launched through "Shohoz" from March 26.
Under the agreement, "Shohoz-Synesis-Vinsen JV" will initially operate the existing CCSRTS system that will be replaced by BRITS in the next 18 months.
"We are working to make the railway services modern and up-to-date," the minister said.
He also said Bangladesh Railway has not yet developed its own capacity to sell tickets. "And so, we have to rely on private organizations for this."
About 90,000 train tickets are issued daily while about 27 lakh monthly through computers. About 50% of these tickets are being issued online or mobile app.
