Train Ticket: 40 Crore BDT Incurred Loss To Customers

Bangladesh Railway has been started selling train tickets in advance from last Friday. In six days, Friday (March 29) was the highest hit by ticket aspirants on the railway website or app. Railway authorities have sold 33 thousand 500 Eid advance tickets from Dhaka on this day. In the first 30 minutes of ticket sale, at this time customers hit 27.2 million times in an attempt to buy tickets online or through the app. According to the relevant sources of Railways, a customer has spent at least 10 Taka while trying to do this online. Still, more than 99 percent of customers return empty-handed. And it's more than four million times a day. At least 40 crore rupees have been lost from the customer’s pocket. However, customers claimed that they have incurred a loss of 20 to 80 crores.

However, by selling tickets at an average of 500 taka per ticket, the revenue of the railways is only 1 crore 67 lakh taka. Also, those 10,000 customers who were able to buy 33,500 tickets have also spent an additional Tk 20 on account of the online service charge per ticket.

A total of 15 thousand 890 tickets were released for the western region at 8 am on this day. 95% of tickets sold out within 30 minutes. Meanwhile, Eastern Railway released 16 thousand 696 tickets including Eid special train tickets at 2 pm. Tickets for AC chair, cabin, non-AC chair and AC-chair are sold out within just 30 minutes. Meanwhile still millions of people keep continue to access on the app for online tickets.

Experts blame the entire issue of ticket sales to the private sector as a reason for the loss of public money and reduction in government revenue. They say that despite the development and capacity of Bangladesh Railways, ticket sales have been given to the private sector. As a result, the revenue is going into the individual's pocket and the customer is also losing.

On the other hand Railway officials claims that the full system including the place of ticket sales and all other related issues could be fetched under the railway department. They said the government can bring the entire issue of ticket sales under the control of the railways.