State-owned Bangladesh Railway (BR) has moved to bring about major reforms of its ticket issuing system in a bid to check 'black marketing' of train tickets and ensure better services for passengers, officials said.
Under the initiative, the BR authority has decided in principle to issue tickets in the name of each passenger like air tickets in near future, according to them.
Sources said the BR in its meetings discussed the matter at different forums following demands placed by various quarters.
"We have agreed in principle to issue rail ticket in person's name. But it is now under study to accommodate to the railway system," said an official.
He said it would take time to introduce the system which would ultimately check black marketing of train tickets especially during Eid.
Sources said the BR is taking some time to study as a good number of printed tickets still remains unsold.
Besides, it has to accommodate the service to its automation system.
At present, the BR sells all intercity and local train tickets from its ticket counters.
Besides, some tickets are available online but in most cases, these tickets are sold at high prices taking advantage of its demand, sources said.
BR officials said initially, it was decided that any person could buy train tickets showing their national identity cards or mobile numbers. Once passengers buy tickets they cannot hand over them even to their family members, they added.
But they said there are still some issues which need to be settled to introduce the new system.
"Anyone can buy rail tickets for his family members at a time. So, we have to study more on this issue to reduce harassment and ensure proper service for the commuters," said a senior official (BR operation).
The state-owned Bangladesh Railway has now more than 348 passenger trains including 86 intercity trains and 126 local trains which are operating in its east and west zones. On an average, 50 million people avail of train services a year.
Though BR officials claim that its earnings has been increasing, the state-owned operator still lags behind in making profits due to a huge gap between investments and returns.
In one hand, a section of BR officials engage in pilferage of rail tickets and sell at high price. On the other hand, a huge number of passengers use cheap transport without tickets as they travel on the train roofs.
Sources said introduction of the new system will help check issuance of tickets in the black markets as now many black marketers use different mobiles to buy train tickets ahead of any festival and sell those at high prices.
smunima@yahoo.com