A bit of relief

Although the situation has improved, but many people are still facing problems to buy train ticket online as of yesterday, especially during the morning hours.

As a result, different railway stations, including the country's largest Kamalapur Railway Station, witnessed huge crowds of people looking to buy tickets.

Talking to The Daily Star, Railways Director General Dhirendra Nath Mazumder admitted that there were some issues in the online ticketing system. "The problems are being fixed," he told this correspondent yesterday.

BR resumed the online sales process through its new vendor, a joint venture firm led by Shohoz, after a five-day pause that ended at 8:00am Saturday.

However, people have failed to buy from tickets from the eticket.railway.gov.bd website as the site went down immediately after resumption of the online ticketing service.

Even yesterday morning, these problems weren't going away for many.

Ekush Ahmed, a private service-holder, said he tried to get registered in the morning but failed after repeated attempts. However, he said he managed to get registered in the noon.

However, Nahid Hasan Khan, director traffic (commercial) of BR, told The Daily Star that some customers said the service has improved a lot.

Contacted, Farhat Ahmed, manager (public relations) at Shohoz, said there was no issue from their side from 8:00am yesterday.

He said around 7,000 tickets were sold through the online platform between 8:00am to noon yesterday. Besides, more than 2 lakh got registered with the website so far, he added.

RAILWAY MINISTER LEAVES FOR TURKEY

Meanwhile, an eight-member delegation led by Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan left the capital yesterday for a visit to Turkey.

The team, which includes ministry secretary Humayun Kabir, will visit the country following the invitation of Turkey's communication and infrastructure minister, said a press release.

The delegation will visit railway locomotives and carriages factories in Turkey and will hold talks over mutual cooperation in the railway sector.

The delegation is supposed to return on April 4.