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Trains to begin operation at half capacity from Jan 15


Published : 11 Jan 2022 10:32 PM | Updated : 12 Jan 2022 01:22 PM

Trains services will begin carrying passengers at half capacity from January 15 to ensure health safety.

Railway authorities took the decision on Tuesday (January 11), said Deputy Director of Bangladesh Railway Md Nahid Hasan Khan.

The new variant of coronavirus ‘Omicron’ led the authority to decide to carry half the passengers on trains to prevent the transmission of the new variant of the deadly virus. 

The government has imposed 11 fresh restrictions for sine die to curb the Covid-19 infection which will come into effect from January 13.

The Cabinet Division issued a circular in this regard on Monday (January 10). According to the circular, all the public transports like bus, train and launch will carry half passengers of the capacity.

According to the directives, the authorities concerned are supposed to issue specific notices on the matter along with the date the restriction will take effect.

Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan on Tuesday (January 11) said that they took the decision, considering the reality.   

He said this while talking to reporters after a contract signing ceremony at Rail Bhaban in Dhaka.

At the programme, the Bangladesh Railway signed a contract with a private company to build shopping mall, hotel-rest house and other establishments on railway’s land near the station in Chattogram city. The contract is based on Public-Private Partnership model.

Ahsan Jaber, PPP focal point of the Bangladesh Railway, and Anwar Hossain, director of Epic Properties Ltd, signed the contract.

 Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan said it will not be possible for trains to start operating at 50% capacity from Thursday (January 13) as tickets for that date have already been sold in advance. 

Meanwhile, the notification issued by the Bangladesh Railway said that they will operate trains with half of its capacity to ensure social and physical distance of passengers.  During the restriction, half of the tickets will be issued through the counter and the other half through mobile or online.

The issue of standing tickets of intercity trains and ticketing of station platforms will also be completely closed. 

Meanwhile, people have already started suffering as they are unable to purchase online tickets from Tuesday morning. According to railway information, it was learned that as they are going to operate train with half of its capacity their existing software needs to be updated. 

Bangladesh Railway Dhaka Divisional Commercial Officer Shawkat Jamil Mohsin told media that ticket sale will return to its normal procedure following the software updated. 

Advance train tickets are usually sold five days in advance. At the time of the earlier restriction, the railways had sold half of the 50 percent tickets online and the rest at ticket counters. However, the fare was not increased.  

Bangladesh has been witnessing a surge in Covid-19 cases for a couple of weeks. 

The health authorities reported 2,231 new cases at an 8.53% infection rate in the 24 hours to Monday morning.

A daily test positivity rate of over 5% is a cause for concern for any country, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

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