For a hassle free train journey for the Eid passengers, the Bangladesh Railway announced that half of tickets will be sold through online apps. Accordingly on, April 28, the Railway Ministry inaugurated an online based apps name “Rail Sheba”.
The Bangladesh Railway that began selling advance train tickets to Eid passenger though their online ticket selling process ‘collapsed’ as most of the users failed to enter the newly launched mobile app, Rail Sheba from early in the morning.
Meanwhile, Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan on Wednesday admitted the glitch in selling advance train tickets through app and said the unsold tickets will be on sale on the counters after five days.
On the first day of selling advance tickets, a big crowd were seen on the railway stations standing in queue and collecting tickets from Kamalapur Railway Station in the city on Wednesday morning.
“I am standing here in line from 9.00 a.m after failure to collect ticket through online apps. There is no improvement at Kamalapur Station and till now I do not know what is in my fate. I have to go must on 31 May to Rangpur with all my family members. I was assured by the Railway authorites that it will be possible to arrange ticket without hassle. But now seeing that this hope is fake. Without ensureing the service quality and technical sides, Railway launched the app” Sulatn Ahmed, a ticket seeker told the New Nation on Wednesday.
On Wednesday tickets for May 31 were sold. Tickets for June 1, 2, 3 and 4 will be available on May 23, 24, 25 and 26 respectively.
Besides, return tickets for June 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 will be available on May 29, 30, 31, June 1 and 2 respectively, according to Bangladesh Railway.
The sale will begin at 9:00am and will continue till 5:00pm. Each person will be able to buy maximum four tickets.
Meanwhile, it is the fault of the Railway Ministry authorities as well as the app company – CNS, the Minister said while visiting Kamalapur Railway Station around 10:30am after complaints of the glitch was raised.
“Each year we try to sell tickets without any hassle and take certain measures regarding that. But the demand is much higher than our arrangement (this year),” the Railway Minister acknowledged.
Asked whether measures would be taken against CNS, the Minister said, “We signed a deal with CNS in 2007 which is scheduled to end this year. But if they fail this time, we won’t renew the deal.”
The Minister also said that tickets which would remain unsold through online, would be available on the counters from May 27.
Kamalapur Station Manager Md Aminul Haque said that they asked the CNS to solve the problem as soon as possible. However, the server was down till filing this report at about 12:45.
Customers, who went to different train tickets selling points in the capital, alleged that the ticket selling process was slow on the counters due to the newly introduced registration process.
Half of the tickets would to be sold through online while the rest would be available on the counters at Kamalapur, Airport, Banani and Tejgaon Railway Stations and Phulbaria, they said.
