Md Joynal Abedin Khan :
Home-goers ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha had to wait for hours at Kamalapur Railway Station to board their scheduled trains due to severe disruption of train services.
As a result, they had to suffer a lot as some trains were delayed by at least one to seven hours because of taking more time at different stations for boarding and leaving of the passengers.
On Sunday, 30 trains providing special services during Eid holydays left the station till 7:30pm, said Shitangsho Chokrobartry, Manager of Kamalapur Railway Station.
Of the trains, 24 trains, including Dhumketu Express, Sundarban Express, Nilphamari-bound Nil Sagar Express, Rangpur-bound Rangpur Express, Dinajpur-bound Ekota Express and Lalmonirhat-bound Lalmoni Express, took around one hour to six hours more to reach their respective destinations because of heavy rush, he said.
Afia Sultan Binte Malek, a passenger and also a student, told The New Nation on Sunday afternoon that she reached Kamalapur Railway Station around 8:30am to board Rangpur Express scheduled to leave at 9:00pm and after seven hours of waiting she is yet to catch his ride.
Tula Mia, another passenger, also expressed similar experience as he is also waiting for hours for his train to reach the station.
Meanwhile, Javed Patwari, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), visited the Kamalapur Railway Station around 3:00pm and talked with passengers there.
After talking with the passengers, he expressed his satisfaction over the arrangement.
He mentioned that no hassle situation found in the station as 2,300 GRP security force’s personnel have deployed to make smooth the train journey.
But the passengers disagreed with the IGP and said that the security arrangement to board the train is almost in mismanagement.
A good number of passengers claimed that dozens of common passengers boarded the train in the AC Snigdha Compartments and AC bath cabins due to lack of guards.
They also said that hundreds of passengers entered the wagons through windows while the rooftop has been seen like people rows.
Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Shitangshu Chakrabarty said, “Sylhet-bound Parabat Express went out of order for two hours after its departure from the Kamalapur Railway Station.”
Some 68 trains leave Kamalapur every day and 31 of them are inter-city services, four Eid special services and the rest are local and mail services. More than 60,000 passengers are leaving by trains from this station everyday ahead of Eid, he said.
“We have been waiting for five hours at the station for the train with my wife, son and daughter. We do not know when the train will come,” said Aminur Islam, a passenger at the Kamalapur Railway Station.
He also said that normally each of the train takes two to three minutes for departure and boarding of the passengers. But this time trains wait for almost five to six minutes in each station that blamed for the train schedule late.
Contacted, Amzad Hossain, Director General of Bangladesh Railway, said, “This failure is unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, sufferings of passengers at the bus terminals too knew no bounds as they were waiting for more than five hours to catch a bus.
The situation was such that even bus service officials could not say exactly when the buses will arrive at the city’s bus stations.
Visiting the city’s Mohakhali, Gabtoli and Syedabad bus terminals this correspondent yesterday found that thousands of people along with their family members were waiting for buses at the terminals.
Nazmul Hossan wanted to go to his home district Nilphamari. “I had to travel yesterday afternoon but they could not even tell me when the bus will arrive in Dhaka,” he said.
Launch passengers alleged that they had to face sufferings due to lack of proper management, extra fare and late departure from Dhaka to their different destinations.
Home-goers ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha had to wait for hours at Kamalapur Railway Station to board their scheduled trains due to severe disruption of train services.
As a result, they had to suffer a lot as some trains were delayed by at least one to seven hours because of taking more time at different stations for boarding and leaving of the passengers.
On Sunday, 30 trains providing special services during Eid holydays left the station till 7:30pm, said Shitangsho Chokrobartry, Manager of Kamalapur Railway Station.
Of the trains, 24 trains, including Dhumketu Express, Sundarban Express, Nilphamari-bound Nil Sagar Express, Rangpur-bound Rangpur Express, Dinajpur-bound Ekota Express and Lalmonirhat-bound Lalmoni Express, took around one hour to six hours more to reach their respective destinations because of heavy rush, he said.
Afia Sultan Binte Malek, a passenger and also a student, told The New Nation on Sunday afternoon that she reached Kamalapur Railway Station around 8:30am to board Rangpur Express scheduled to leave at 9:00pm and after seven hours of waiting she is yet to catch his ride.
Tula Mia, another passenger, also expressed similar experience as he is also waiting for hours for his train to reach the station.
Meanwhile, Javed Patwari, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), visited the Kamalapur Railway Station around 3:00pm and talked with passengers there.
After talking with the passengers, he expressed his satisfaction over the arrangement.
He mentioned that no hassle situation found in the station as 2,300 GRP security force’s personnel have deployed to make smooth the train journey.
But the passengers disagreed with the IGP and said that the security arrangement to board the train is almost in mismanagement.
A good number of passengers claimed that dozens of common passengers boarded the train in the AC Snigdha Compartments and AC bath cabins due to lack of guards.
They also said that hundreds of passengers entered the wagons through windows while the rooftop has been seen like people rows.
Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Shitangshu Chakrabarty said, “Sylhet-bound Parabat Express went out of order for two hours after its departure from the Kamalapur Railway Station.”
Some 68 trains leave Kamalapur every day and 31 of them are inter-city services, four Eid special services and the rest are local and mail services. More than 60,000 passengers are leaving by trains from this station everyday ahead of Eid, he said.
“We have been waiting for five hours at the station for the train with my wife, son and daughter. We do not know when the train will come,” said Aminur Islam, a passenger at the Kamalapur Railway Station.
He also said that normally each of the train takes two to three minutes for departure and boarding of the passengers. But this time trains wait for almost five to six minutes in each station that blamed for the train schedule late.
Contacted, Amzad Hossain, Director General of Bangladesh Railway, said, “This failure is unfortunate.”
Meanwhile, sufferings of passengers at the bus terminals too knew no bounds as they were waiting for more than five hours to catch a bus.
The situation was such that even bus service officials could not say exactly when the buses will arrive at the city’s bus stations.
Visiting the city’s Mohakhali, Gabtoli and Syedabad bus terminals this correspondent yesterday found that thousands of people along with their family members were waiting for buses at the terminals.
Nazmul Hossan wanted to go to his home district Nilphamari. “I had to travel yesterday afternoon but they could not even tell me when the bus will arrive in Dhaka,” he said.
Launch passengers alleged that they had to face sufferings due to lack of proper management, extra fare and late departure from Dhaka to their different destinations.
