Legal notice served to authorities to reduce Dhaka-Bhanga train fare
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A legal notice has been sent to the concerned bodies of the government demanding their steps to reduce fares in the Dhaka-Bhanga train route. Avijit Biswas, a lawyer of Dhaka Bar Association, sent the legal notice on Wednesday.
Railways Secretary, Director General of Bangladesh Railway, Chief Planning Officer of Bangladesh Railway and others have been asked to take necessary steps to reevaluate the train fare that already has been fixed. Otherwise, further legal steps will be taken in this regard, also warned the legal notice.
According to the notice, “Bangladesh Railway has proposed a fare of Tk 350 per person for a non-AC seat of an intercity train and Tk 667 for an AC seat on the Dhaka to Bhanga route via Padma Bridge.
However, the fare from Dhaka to Chattogram in a non-AC seat of an intercity train is Tk 345 and in an AC seat is Tk 656 per person. The thing to note here is that the distance from Dhaka to Bhanga via Padma bridge is only 77 km, while the distance from Dhaka to Chattogram is 321 km.
As such, the fare is supposed to be lower, since the distance of the Dhaka-Bhanga route is far less, but unfortunately, the fare is higher than the Dhaka-Chattogram route which is not acceptable in any way.”
The notice further said that current fare of AC chair coach is Tk 1.95 per kilometre and non-AC chair is Tk 1.17. Accordingly, the fare for a distance of 77 km from Dhaka to Bhanga should be Tk 90 for non-AC and Tk 150.15 for AC.
But the proposed fare is fixed almost four times more than this fare, which cannot be accepted in any way. The railway committee formed on September 24 has proposed such fare, which is undoubtedly against the public interest.