Bangladesh Railway (BR) on Saturday started selling intercity train tickets 10-day in advance before the travel date.
“Starting on April 1 at 8 am, all tickets will be offered concurrently over the counter and online. Hence, there won't be a distinct online or counter quota. Tickets will be sold 10 days in advance from now,” Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan told the reporters.
Previously, passengers would be able to buy tickets only five days in advance.
Meanwhile, intercity train tickets for the Eid-ul-Fitr holidays (April 17-30) will be available online from April 7, according to a press release of the Ministry of Railways.
Sales of advance tickets will start on April 7 and continue for five days. Return tickets will be available from April 15. Sold tickets will be non-refundable and one person will not be able to buy more than four tickets.
Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said they are considering selling all tickets online on a pilot basis to take the railways forward. “We want to avoid chaos we see every year over buying of Eid advance tickets. We want to make the people familiar with technologies,” he added.
The authorities have also decided to operate extra 10 sets of special trains to carry passengers home. There will be additional 10 locomotives in service to tackle schedule collapse.
The minister said, “We have also asked the law enforcement agencies to work relentlessly to make this Eid journey peaceful and hassle-free.”
BR officials said that the 100 per cent online ticketing system will help stop selling tickets in the black market this year as they have already introduced the ticket verification system using national identity cards.
The BR introduced mandatory registration for passengers to purchase inter-city train tickets as they have stopped selling tickets to unregistered travellers online or at counters from March 1.
The BR officials are verifying tickets on board to stop ticket sales on the black market.
