United News of Bangladesh

With Eid-ul-Azha approaching, the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has launched a nationwide operation to tackle black market ticket sales, financial irregularities and passenger harassment at railway stations. Beginning at 11:30 am on May 28, the ACC initiated a coordinated crackdown at eight key stations, including Kamalapur in Dhaka. Md Akhtarul Islam, Deputy Director of Public Relations at the ACC, confirmed the move, saying the drive aims to bring an end to the illicit sale of train tickets.  Special teams have been deployed to Kamalapur (Dhaka), Chattogram, Rangpur, Rajshahi, Mymensingh, Jamalpur, Sylhet and Dinajpur stations. Online Rush for Tickets The surge in demand for tickets has been intense. On May 26, when tickets for  June 5 were released for western-bound trains, the railway’s ticketing website saw 29.7 million hits within just 30 minutes.  On the previous day, when tickets for eastern-bound intercity trains went on sale, the site received 19.4 million hits during the same period.  Earlier that morning, sales for the western-bound trains also recorded 27.6 million hits. According to Bangladesh Railway, 33,924 tickets were issued for trains departing on June 5: 16,576 for 24 eastern-bound trains and 17,348 for 21 western-bound trains. By 8:30 am, 14,581 of these had already been sold. On June 4, 34,020 tickets were allocated: 16,576 for eastern routes and 17,444 for western destinations.  By 2:30 pm, 31,547 had been sold.  Train Ticket Black Market: ACC cracks down across major stations Across the Eid season, a total of 183,665 tickets have been allocated, with 62,258 sold as of Sunday afternoon. From Dhaka alone, intercity trains offer a total of 33,315 seats.  A further 47,000 tickets have been made available for commuter, mail, and local services, covering 23 eastern and 20 northern trains. Questions Over Speed of Sales Dr Md Mesbahuddin Sarkar, Professor at the Institute of Information Technology, Jahangirnagar University, raised questions about the speed of ticket sales. “We’ve heard of thousands of tickets being sold within two minutes.  For that to be possible, an extremely high-speed server would be required -- something that’s questionable given our local infrastructure,” he said.  He also pointed out that allegations of black-market activity have long surrounded holiday ticket sales. ICT experts echoed his concerns, questioning whether local servers can support such rapid processing.  Online train tickets vanish in a blink as expert weighs in on black market fiasco Kamalapur Station Manager Sajedul Islam said, according to online platform shohoj.com, their system is capable of handling 30,000 ticket sales every five minutes. “No matter how many hits the site gets, there’s a fixed number of seats — around 43,000 including standing tickets,” said Sajedul.  “Hits don’t guarantee tickets," he added.  When asked about the possibility of black-market activity, he said, “I joined on 30 April. Since then, I haven’t encountered any complaints or caught anyone involved in illegal ticket sales. We are monitoring the situation regularly.” Public concern over ticket availability continues to grow as Eid travel demand peaks, with authorities now under pressure to ensure transparency and fairness in the distribution system.

The sale of advance train tickets for Eid holidaymakers will start online from June 2. The commuters have to purchase their tickets online and though mobile apps, said Director General of Bangladesh Railway Sardar Sahadat Ali while speaking at a press briefing held at the conference room of the Rail Bhaban over railways’ preparation on the occasion of Eid on Tuesday. The ticket for June 12 will be available on June 2, for June 13 on June 3, June 14 on June 4 and the tickets for June 15 and 16 will be available on June 5 and June 6 respectively. Read more: How to Buy Plane, Bus, and Train Tickets Online in Bangladesh Those sale of tickets will start at 8 am for western region and at 2 pm for the eastern region of the country, he said. Railway Minister Zillul Hakim, deputy secretary Toufique Imam and Additional Director General of Bangladesh Railway Md Arifuzzaman were present there.

Bangladesh Railway will start selling advance train tickets on April 7 for Eid-ul-Fitr, said Railways Minister Md Nurul Islam Sujan on Wednesday. Nine pairs of special trains will run on different routes to ease journey of home-bound people during Eid, he said at a press briefing at the Rail Bhaban. Advance train tickets for April, 17, 18,19,20,21 will be available on April 7, 8,9,10, and 11 respectively while the selling of return tickets will begin from April 15, he said. Among the nine pairs of special trains—Chattogram Eid Special 1 and 3 will run on Chattogram-Chandpur-Chattogram route and Chandpur Edi special-2 and 4 and Dewanganj Eid Special-5 will run on Chandpur-Chattogram-Chandpur route, Dewanganj Eid Special 5 and 6 will run on Dhaka-Dewanganj-Dhaka route, Mymensingh Eid Special-7 and Mymensingh Eid Special-8 will run on Chattogram-Mymensingh-Chattogram route, Eid special 9 and 10 will run on Sylhet-Chandpur-Sylhet route. Also read: Eid-ul-Azha: Advance train ticket sale begins on July 1 All the trains will be available four days before the Eid-ul-Fitr and five days after Eid. Meanwhile, Sholakia Eid Special 11 and 12 will run on Bhairab Bazar-Kishoreganj-Bhairab Bazar route and Sholakia Eid Special 13-14 will run on Mymensingh-Kishoreganj-Mymensingh route on Eid day.  

Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) members have detained two members of Railway Nirapatta Bahini (RNB) for selling tickets at higher prices in black market in Chattogram. The detainees were Md Robiul Hossain, 39, a Habildar and Md Imran Hossain, 27, a Sepoy. Also read: Councillor’s son arrested for killing wife in Chattogram According to Rab, they were selling tickets at exorbitant prices in front of Railway Sramik League’s office at the Chattogram railway station. Rab conducted a drive at about 10:30pm on Sunday and recovered nine train tickets and Tk 10,320 from the two RNB staff. They were handed over to Chattogram’s Kotwali police station for further legal procedures. Also read: 4 members of a gang of robbers arrested

The sale of advance train tickets for Eid-ul-Azha began on Friday morning. Bangladesh Railway started selling advance train tickets for July 5 at six places in Dhaka -- Kamalapur, Kamalapur suburban platform, Airport rail station, Tejgaon railway station, Cantonment, Fulbaria (Old Railway Station) -- and six places in Joydevpur at 8am. Ticket sales also began at 8am through the ‘Rail Sheba’ mobile app and e-ticketing platform on the internet. Ticket sales at the railway stations will continue till 4pm daily. Also read: Eid-ul-Azha: Advance train ticket sale begins on July 1 Besides, the advance tickets for July 6, 7, 8, and 9 will be available on July 2, 3, 4, and 5, respectively. On the other hand, the sale of return tickets will begin on July 7. The return tickets for July 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 will be available on July 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, respectively. Each passenger is eligible buy a maximum of four tickets. Also read: Eid-ul-Azha in Bangladesh on July 10

Bangladesh Railway will start selling advance train tickets on April 23 on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. Advance train tickets of April 27 will be available on April 23, Additional Director General (Operation) of Bangladesh Railway Sardar Shahadat told UNB. The advance tickets of April 28, 29, 30 and May 1 will be available on April 24, 25, 26 and 27 respectively. Also read: No launch ticket without NID cards during Eid: Khalid Besides, the selling of return tickets will begin from the second day of Eid-ul-Fitr, he said. Details about the selling of advance train tickets will be known after a meeting on April 13. Also read: Online train ticket sale to resume from 6 pm Friday for March 26

The sale of online ticket of Bangladesh Railway will remain suspended from March 21 to March 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 ail Bhaban in Dhaka on Monday. During the period, cent per cent of the 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 Bangladesh Railway. Earlier, CNS was involved in the work. Read: Consider maximum cut in import VAT on edible oil: Cabinet directs NBR In order to re-activate the computer ticketing system by ‘Shohoz’ at 77 stations, it will require minimum five days. The computerised 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.” Read: Made-in-Bangladesh locomotive parts in the offing to save money, create jobs About 90,000 train tickets are issued daily while about 27 lakh monthly through computers. About 50 per cent of these tickets are being issued online or mobile app.

The government has decided to make train tickets non-transferable to prevent the sale of tickets on the black market, the Railways Ministry announced Thursday.