No one can enter railway stations without ticket: minister

Railway Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan has said access to rail stations has been controlled so that no one can enter the stations without a ticket.

The minister made the remarks while talking to reporters following a visit to the Kamalapur Railway Station today.

He said, "Our two main religious festivals are Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha. During this time, hundreds of thousands of people leave Dhaka city to visit their relatives and spend Eid in villages. One of the means of transportation is railway. During Eid, there is a huge pressure of passengers."

"To cope with this pressure, we prepare and take various measures. We announced our plan a month ago through the media," said Nurul.

He also mentioned that Bangladesh Railway has taken internal preparations necessary to deal with the pressure.

For the first time ever, Bangladesh Railway has sold 100% of its tickets for inter-city trains online to reduce the hassle of people, the minister said.

The Eid special service is set to begin from tomorrow and expected to be run until the last week of the month, he added.

The minister said he visited Kamalapur Railway Station to observe overall preparations.

"I have discussed with the people concerned and asked them to take all the necessary steps to ensure a safer journey for the passengers," he added.

The minister also said that Dhaka-bound Ekota Express, Drutojan Express, Panchagarh-bound Nilsagar Express, Kurigram Express, Lalmoni Express and Rangpur Express will not stop at Dhaka Airport Railway because passengers from that station tend to occupy seats in these trains.

To reduce the chaos during the Eid commute, the railway minister said special measures have been taken including the installation of temporary bamboo fences at Kamalapur, Airport, and Joydebpur stations so that passengers cannot enter stations without showing tickets.

Regarding the schedule disruption, Sujan said, "If one of our single-line trains is delayed by 10 minutes, it will impact other trains as well. And due to the ongoing heatwave, the speed of trains have to be reduced."

He urged the passengers to be patient keeping all this situation in mind.

During the station visit, Railway Secretary Dr Md Humayun Kabir, Bangladesh Railways Director General Kamrul Ahsan, Additional Director General Operations Sardar Shahadat Ali, and other officials concerned were present.