Staff Reporter :
Government has taken massive preparations to ensure safe and smooth journey to the home bound passengers during the Eid-ul Fitr festival involving Railways, Shipping and Road Transport and Bridges ministries.
In line with the plan, Bangladesh Railway will start selling advance train tickets each day from July 9 to July 13 to facilitate travel for home goers.
“The BR will start selling advance return tickets from July 14 to July 17. A passenger would be allowed to buy highest four tickets to prevent black marketing,” Railways Minister Mohammad Mazibul Hoque said at a press conference at Rail Bhaban on Sunday afternoon.
“The tickets for home bound passengers would be sold at the Kamalapur Railway Station. The tickets for the return journeys to the capital would be sold at outlying railway stations. All the advance tickets would be sold from 9 AM to 5 PM,” said the Minister.
Official sources said that 25 per cent of the advance tickets would be sold online and five per cent would be reserved for the VIPS and BR employees.
Besides, the BR would press 166 additional coaches and 15 additional locomotives into service to carry Eid time passengers, said the officials adding that the additional coaches would be added to 10 trains that would start running three days before Eid and the service
would continue seven days after the Eid.
Sources said that the trains would run on Dhaka-Mohonganj, Dhaka-Parbatipur, Dhaka-Khulna and Chittagong-Chandpur routes to carry the extra rush of passengers during the festival.
The police, Rapid Action Battalion, Government Railway Police and Railway Nirapatta Bahini would be deployed to check black marketing of the advance train tickets and ticketless travel.
On the other hand, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has assured travellers that journey of homebound passengers would be safe and effortless during Eid-ul-Fitr this year.
“There will be no gridlocks on highways before and after Eid festival. I want to assure the people that with the cooperation of all relevant authorities they will be able to go home to celebrate Eid and return to their workplaces after the festival without any hassle,” he told Parliament on Sunday.
He said, “The monitoring teams of his ministry are ‘closely overseeing’ road repairs. I’ll sit with all concerned on Monday [today] to chart out a course of action to tackle any eventuality. We are seriously working to ensure safe homeward journey for people, that exit routes from Dhaka City remain congestion free and to tackle any gridlocks on the highways and other road safety issues.”
“The engineers of the Roads and Highways Department have been kept on alert. Well-equipped mobile teams of engineers would also be ready to deal with any emergency repair work before the Eid,” the Minister said.
For reducing traffic jam, the Minister sought help of police and other related agencies. “The highways will not cause traffic jam. We’ll tackle traffic congestion, if there is any,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan has assured that there would be tough vigilance to prevent over loading during Eid journey this year.
“No extra passenger will be allowed beyond load-line. This year the Eid-ul Fitr will be celebrated in full monsoon. We want to prevent any sort of accident this time,” the Minister said while addressing a view-exchange meeting at BIWTA Bhaban organised by Shipping Ministry.
Shipping Secretary Shafique Alam Mehedi, BIWTA Chairman Commodore M Mozammel Haq, BIWTC Chairman Mizanur Rahman, Senior Secretary of Home Ministry, DCs of different districts, and officials of BRTA, Road and Highway, lauch owners’ association and police were present in the meeting.
“We will stop lying small launches during monsoon. Earlier, we had also stopped plying of several launches including 11 small vessels after a tragic accident…We have given instruction to keep life jacket for each passenger. Besides, I urge the owners to employ skill persons for smooth voyage,” the Minister said.
He said, “We have able to bring back discipline in the shipping sector. Nine new ships have joined the fleet. Another ship named ‘Modhumoti’ will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina soon. .. Pointing the overloading as main reason behind accidents, he said, “The number of accidents in riverine routes was 31 in 2004 and it was 20 in 2014. The number was 16 in 2009 and it was five in 2015.”
Government has taken massive preparations to ensure safe and smooth journey to the home bound passengers during the Eid-ul Fitr festival involving Railways, Shipping and Road Transport and Bridges ministries.
In line with the plan, Bangladesh Railway will start selling advance train tickets each day from July 9 to July 13 to facilitate travel for home goers.
“The BR will start selling advance return tickets from July 14 to July 17. A passenger would be allowed to buy highest four tickets to prevent black marketing,” Railways Minister Mohammad Mazibul Hoque said at a press conference at Rail Bhaban on Sunday afternoon.
“The tickets for home bound passengers would be sold at the Kamalapur Railway Station. The tickets for the return journeys to the capital would be sold at outlying railway stations. All the advance tickets would be sold from 9 AM to 5 PM,” said the Minister.
Official sources said that 25 per cent of the advance tickets would be sold online and five per cent would be reserved for the VIPS and BR employees.
Besides, the BR would press 166 additional coaches and 15 additional locomotives into service to carry Eid time passengers, said the officials adding that the additional coaches would be added to 10 trains that would start running three days before Eid and the service
would continue seven days after the Eid.
Sources said that the trains would run on Dhaka-Mohonganj, Dhaka-Parbatipur, Dhaka-Khulna and Chittagong-Chandpur routes to carry the extra rush of passengers during the festival.
The police, Rapid Action Battalion, Government Railway Police and Railway Nirapatta Bahini would be deployed to check black marketing of the advance train tickets and ticketless travel.
On the other hand, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader has assured travellers that journey of homebound passengers would be safe and effortless during Eid-ul-Fitr this year.
“There will be no gridlocks on highways before and after Eid festival. I want to assure the people that with the cooperation of all relevant authorities they will be able to go home to celebrate Eid and return to their workplaces after the festival without any hassle,” he told Parliament on Sunday.
He said, “The monitoring teams of his ministry are ‘closely overseeing’ road repairs. I’ll sit with all concerned on Monday [today] to chart out a course of action to tackle any eventuality. We are seriously working to ensure safe homeward journey for people, that exit routes from Dhaka City remain congestion free and to tackle any gridlocks on the highways and other road safety issues.”
“The engineers of the Roads and Highways Department have been kept on alert. Well-equipped mobile teams of engineers would also be ready to deal with any emergency repair work before the Eid,” the Minister said.
For reducing traffic jam, the Minister sought help of police and other related agencies. “The highways will not cause traffic jam. We’ll tackle traffic congestion, if there is any,” he said.
Meanwhile, Shipping Minister Shahjahan Khan has assured that there would be tough vigilance to prevent over loading during Eid journey this year.
“No extra passenger will be allowed beyond load-line. This year the Eid-ul Fitr will be celebrated in full monsoon. We want to prevent any sort of accident this time,” the Minister said while addressing a view-exchange meeting at BIWTA Bhaban organised by Shipping Ministry.
Shipping Secretary Shafique Alam Mehedi, BIWTA Chairman Commodore M Mozammel Haq, BIWTC Chairman Mizanur Rahman, Senior Secretary of Home Ministry, DCs of different districts, and officials of BRTA, Road and Highway, lauch owners’ association and police were present in the meeting.
“We will stop lying small launches during monsoon. Earlier, we had also stopped plying of several launches including 11 small vessels after a tragic accident…We have given instruction to keep life jacket for each passenger. Besides, I urge the owners to employ skill persons for smooth voyage,” the Minister said.
He said, “We have able to bring back discipline in the shipping sector. Nine new ships have joined the fleet. Another ship named ‘Modhumoti’ will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina soon. .. Pointing the overloading as main reason behind accidents, he said, “The number of accidents in riverine routes was 31 in 2004 and it was 20 in 2014. The number was 16 in 2009 and it was five in 2015.”
