In order to offer better services to the passengers, the railway authority is going to introduce a new online ticket purchasing service. Due to this, the online train ticket sale services will remain suspended for five days. From March 26, a new online service will be available.
“Online train ticket sales will remain shut from March 20 to March 25 for transferring the data on ticket sales activities from Computer Networking System (CNS) to Shohoz Limited,” said Bangladesh Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan.
He made these remarks at a press briefing held at the Railway Bhaban in the capital on Monday. He said, “CNS has been selling train tickets online since 2007. Bangladesh Railway had a 15-year contract with them. The term is about to end on March 20. We had invited tender for online ticket sales. According to the new tender, Shohoz Limited has got the job of selling railway tickets. They will sell train tickets from March 26.”
“Until March 20, CNS will handle computerized ticketing for intercity trains on the railways. Later, Shohoz-Synesis-Vinsen JV computer ticketing system will be reactivated at 77 stations. As there is some technical work that has to be done in the system, this will take a minimum of five days. Instead of issuing tickets online, 100 percent tickets will be issued manually at the counter for five days from March 21 to March 25,” he added.
Due to the online transfer, tickets will be issued two days in advance instead of five days in the manual system and in this case, all tickets will be open and no quota or seat will be reserved.
About 90,000 tickets are issued daily or about 27 lakh monthly tickets are issued through computers. Of the total, 50 percent is 13 lakh tickets are being issued through online / mobile app.
“We are working to make the railways modern and up-to-date. We have given the responsibility to the new company for the purpose of providing better services to the people. Our main goal is to bring transparency and easy access to railway ticket sales. Bangladesh Railway has not yet developed its own ticketing capacity. We have to rely on the private sector,” the minister concluded.