Cry for direct train service
People in the district have been continuing their agitation for direct train service with the capital as they face untold sufferings to travel only 100 kilometres due to inadequate bus service and regular traffic congestion on Dhaka-Tangail Highway.
They have been observing various programmes for the last few months to realise their longstanding demand. Thousands of people from all walks of life joined the programmes, including mass signature campaign, human chain, rally and sit-in.
Students, service holders and traders travel to the capital for different purposes, including jobs and businesses, every day.
"Though at least 12 trains ply the route, only a few of them stop for a few minutes at Tangail rail station with only 120 seats for several thousand passengers," he said.
"A direct train service, which will start from Tangail for Dhaka at 6:30am, and from Dhaka for Tangail at 6:30pm, is needed urgently," said local Janata Bank branch Manager Jahangir Alam.
"Dhaka-Tangail direct train service is now the main demand of the 40 lakh people of the district," said Sajjad Khoshnobish, member-secretary of the Train Service Implementation Committee.
"Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at a public meeting in Tangail on June 30 in 2012 promised that Dhaka-Tangail commuter train service would be introduced. A letter was also sent immediately from her office to the railway ministry in this regard," said committee convener Sayeed Mohammad Lutfullah.
Lutfullah said the PM's commitment has not been implemented even after five years although all necessary facilities are available to start the service at Ibrahimabad Railway Station at Bangabandhu Bridge East.
"Local people sold their lands to the Railway at half the market prices for construction of train tracks through the Bangabandhu Multipurpose Bridge," said Tangail Babosayee Oikya Jote President Abul Kalam Mostofa Labu.
Awami League lawmaker Sanwar Hossain said direct train service is a must. He said upgradation of the two-lane Dhaka-Tangail Highway to four-lane would not reduce traffic congestion due to rapid increase of industries on the way to the capital from the district. He said all the lawmakers in the district would talk to the PM in this regard.
Deputy Commissioner Khan Mohammad Nurul Amin said the district administration has sent several letters to the railway ministry in this regard and talked to the minister when he visited the site of a collapsed railway bridge in Tangail recently.
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