The government launched a project on Wednesday to control tobacco use in railway zones.
The Section 110 of The Railway Act 1890 restricts tobacco use in trains keeping a provision of forcing persons get down from trains and realising a fine of Tk 20 for any breach of it.
Bangladesh Tobacco Control Act 2013 also considers the railway station a public domain, restricting smoking in the vicinity and keeping a provision of fine up to Tk 1,000 if anybody is found smoking in the public place.
While launching the project at the Rail Bhaban in Dhaka, Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujon said the railway was specifically defined as a public domain by the existing tobacco control act.
Under the initiative, the minister said, vendors selling any tobacco items will also be prohibited in the station areas.
Mr Sujon said tobacco-free society could not be established only by executing the law and through campaigns.
Instead, the minister put emphasis on restricting the source of tobacco production for a tobacco-free country.
The railways ministry took up the project, named 'Initiative to make Bangladesh Railway Tobacco -- Free', in line with the prime minister's announcement to make Bangladesh tobacco -- free by 2040.
The US-led organisation The Union (International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease) will provide US $116,817 for the project.
Project Director Jalal Uddin Ahmed said the project had been taken to create awareness among all, save people including women, children, pregnant women and sick people from being passive smokers, and save the environment through checking spitting.
He also said the initiative would also help build capacity of the railway staff.
Railways Secretary Mohammad Humayun Kabir, Bangladesh Railway Director General Dhirendra Nath Majumder, Founder of MANOS Professor Dr Arup Ratan Chowdhury, Bangladesh Cancer Society Project Director Professor Dr Golam Mohiuddin Faruk, and Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Health Israt Chowdhury, among others, spoke on the occasion.
