Staff Correspondent:

Bangladesh Railway started selling of advance train tickets on June 2 centering the upcoming Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest festival of the Muslims.

Advance tickets for western zone routes became available online at 8:00 am.

According to Kamalapur Railway Station sources, in the first hour, tickets for the Rangpur section were sold out.

However, some tickets remain unsold in the other two divisions of the western region, Rajshahi and Khulna. In the first hour, 11,940 out of 14,157 tickets were sold in the western region.

According to railway sources, the demand is highest for Ekata Express and Panchagarh Express running on the Dhaka-Panchgarh route in North Bengal of the Western Railway.

Next in demand are Kurigram and Rangpur Express on the Dhaka-Kurigram route, and Chilahati and Nilsagar Express on the Dhaka-Nilphamari route.

Tickets for these three routes were sold out in the first ten minutes, just like yesterday.

Since Lalmonirhat is the only intercity train running from Dhaka to Lalmonirhat, tickets for this route are also sold out as usual.

On the other hand, it took an hour to sell tickets for the four intercity trains from Dhaka to Rajshahi – Padma, Silk City, Banalta, and Rajshahi Express.

Tickets for three intercity trains – Benapole, Sundarban, and Chitra Express in the Jessore and Khulna regions – are still unsold.

Rail Minister Md Zillul Hakim announced at a May 28 press conference that advance ticket sales would start 10 days before the Eid journeys commence. Accordingly, sales for June 12 began on Sunday.

Tickets for June 13 will be sold on June 3, tickets for June 14 on June 4, tickets for June 15 on June 5, and tickets for June 16 on June 6.

Return tickets for June 20 will be available on June 10, tickets for June 21 on June 11, tickets for June 22 on June 12, tickets for June 23 on June 13, and tickets for June 24 on June 14.