Bangladesh Railway is getting lesser number of passengers than its permissible seats due to the coronavirus pandemic, forcing it to suspend services of two intercity trains.
Officials said Sonar Bangla and NoakhaliUpokulexpress trains will not be operated from Saturday on Dhaka-Chattogram and Dhaka-Noakhali routes respectively.
They said the decision to suspend services of Sonar Bangla express train has been taken as another train Subarna Express is now operating on Dhaka-Chattogram route.
But BR has stopped operating Noakhali Upokulexpresstrain as the government has declared Noakhali as red zone.
"An inter-city train is now in operation on Dhaka-Chattogram route. So, Sonar Bangla service has been redundant as the number of passengers is low," said the general manager of BR West Zone.
He said Noakhali Upokulexpress train has been operating up to Laksam for the last five days as it could not go to its last destination in Noakhaliwhich went into lockdown due to the pandemic.
The BR resumed its intercity train services after the government relaxed public transport movement on May 31. On the first day, the state-owned train operator launched eight sets of intercity trains and another 11 trains on June 3 following health related guidelines for passengers.
The BR's record showed that on the first few days since resumption of service, the railway used to get almost full passengers on its allowable half capacity seats. But it started gradually decreasing and came down to 20-30 per cent, said an official.
"We are running the trains, keeping half of the seats vacant for safety reason. But half of the seats is now getting full," said another official.
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