BR set to operate all intercity trains from September 5

Bangladesh Railway (BR) is set to complete the process of restarting all its intercity trains with resuming 14 more trains on September 5.

BR has already resumed operation of 30 pairs of intercity trains from May 31 to August 16. It is also set to resume services of 14 more intercity and four commuter trains on August 27.

According to sources, the state-run train operator will resume operation of one local and three commuter trains along with the rest 14 intercity trains on September 5.

Director General of Bangladesh Railway Mohammad Shamsuzzman said BR has been monitoring the government decision on road transport to run all passenger and goods trains.

BR suspended all its passenger and cargo train services after the government had announced lockdown from March 26 to check the spread of Covid-19.

It later resumed services of 17 intercity trains in two phases on May 31 and June 3 after the government allowed public transport on a limited scale, keeping half of the seats vacant. Thirteen more intercity trains resumed operation on August 16.

The decision to resume all intercity trains was taken at a meeting on August 9 which was attended by Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujon, Rail Secretary Mohammad Selim Reza and BR Director General Mohammad Shamsuzzaman.

The meeting also took decision to keep the number of seats of all trains half and sell tickets online.