Adding more coaches to CU shuttle train

The University of Chittagong is one of the leading public universities in Bangladesh. The university, situated in the midst of thick greenery and a number of hills and hillocks, surely makes anyone fall in love with its campus. As this beautiful university is located in Hathazari upazila, around 22 kilometres off Chattogram city, most of the students, out of the total 28,000, who live outside the campus, have to solely depend on the shuttle train service to reach the campus. In addition, the resident students often travel to the city by train. These trains are the main means of transport for thousands of students of Chittagong University (CU).

The shuttle train service was launched in 1980 in cooperation with Bangladesh Railway. In 2014, a Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU) train was added. Since then, there have been only three trains in service, each with six to seven coaches, sometimes even fewer. Each train can accommodate around 1,000 students but most of the time more than 2,000 travel in one train during the rush hour. So, a number of students are forced to travel standing in overcrowded coaches of the shuttle train. The number of students at CU has been rising every year. However, the authorities concerned have not yet increased the capacity of the shuttle trains. Therefore, we, the students of CU, urge the university administration to look into the matter and increase the number of coaches of the shuttle trains.

Al Amin Hossain

Student of University of Chittagong, Chattogram,

alaminfinance1998@gmail.com