BR to introduce two commuter trains Sunday

Bangladesh Railway (BR) is set to introduce two sets of commuter trains on the highly demanding Dhaka-Joydebpur-Dhaka route on Sunday to facilitate mainly the city-bound office-goers.

Officials said the Joydebpur commuter train with seven broad gauge coaches will have the capacity to transport around 1050 passengers.

It will have stoppages at Tejgaon, Banani, Airport station and Tongi, and will be operated two times in the morning every day, except Saturday.

"As many Joydebpur-bound trains are available in the evening, no special commuter trains will be available for the returnees," said an official, preferring not to be named.

According to the schedule, the Joydebpur Commuter-1 will start from Dhaka at 5:25 am and reach Joydebpur 6:25 am. The same train will start for Dhaka at 7:10 am and reach at 8:25 am.

The up train will have stoppages at Tejgaon, Airport and Tongi stations but the down train will have extra stoppage at Banani station.

Another set of trains will be operating from Dhaka at 11.am which will reach Joydebpur at 12 pm. The same train will start for Dhaka at 12:30 pm and reach at 01.40 pm.

Though the BR has been operating several other commuter trains, including Turag, and local trains from Dhaka, four of these also have stops at Joydebpur station in the morning to facilitate the passengers living in the suburb.

Officials said that amid the shortage of trains and coaches, these trains could be launched by refurbishing the broad gauge coaches. The middle seats have been withdrawn to accommodate more standing passengers in the short journey.

Of the total seven coaches, they said, one will be female-only coach as a significant number of females also travel everyday to and from Dhaka and Joydebpur.

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