Brahmanbaria Railway Station to resume operations almost 3 months after Hefajat mayhem
12 trains to stop at the station from tomorrow
Brahmanbaria Railway Station, which remained closed since March 27 following violence carried out by supporters and activists of Hefajat-e-Islam, will resume its operations from tomorrow.
From tomorrow, a total of 12 mail, commuter and intercity trains will make stopovers at the station, said a notice signed by Md Rezaul Haque, deputy director (Operations) of Traffic Transportation branch in Rail Bhaban, Dhaka, yesterday.
According to the notice, five pairs of mail/express and commuter trains -- two lower and upper Surma Mail, two Mymensingh Express, two Karnafuli commuters and four Titas commuter trains, which run on Dhaka-Akhaura route -- will make stopovers on regular basis at the station from tomorrow.
A pair of Dhaka-Sylhet intercity Parabat Express will stop at the station from Wednesday.
Passengers will be able to travel from the station only through purchasing tickets online as the ticket counter is yet to be repaired, reports our Brahmanbaria correspondent.
BRAHMANBARIA RAILWAY STATION DEGRADED
Bangladesh Railway has degraded Brahmanbaria Railway Station from category "B" to "D" after the massive damage caused by the Hefajat mayhem, the notice said.
The authorities have decided to resume the train service from the station, considering the sufferings of the passengers, the notice added.
Kabir Hossain, chief booking assistant of Brahmanbaria Railway Station, said that the station is the country's second largest station in terms of counter ticket sales and it ranked third in terms of number of passengers.
Before the suspension of the train services, over 30 pair of trains used to make stopovers here daily and more than 2,500 passengers traveled to different parts of the country including Dhaka, Chattogram, Sylhet and Noakhali from Brahmanbaria.
Hefajat activists and Qawmi madrasa students vandalised and torched Brahmanbaria Railway Station on March 26 centring the visit of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, which snapped Dhaka's rail links with Chattogram and Sylhet.
The protesters first set fire to the control panel and torched seven rooms of the railway station. They smashed all the furniture including passenger chairs and threw them out of the platform and set those on fire.
As the signal system of the station was completely destroyed, the railway authorities suspended its services on March 27.