Dhaka-Tongi commuter train service flagged off

Railway Minister Mojibul Haque has said that when the present government is augmenting railways by introducing new trains and services, the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are on to destroy it.

The minister flagged off a commuter train service between Dhaka's Kamalapur Rail Station and Gazipur's Tongi Junction on Tuesday. "Many of you travel to Dhaka and other places from Tongi, but there was no direct service on this route until now."

The commuter train, known as Diesel Electric Multiple Unit (DEMU), will ply between Dhaka and Tongi six days a week.

It will operate on the route twice a day with 600 passengers at a time. With a stopover at the Airport Railway Station, the 45-minute trip would cost Tk 15 per person.

Dhaka Divisional Railway's Manager Kamrul Ahsan told bdnews24.com that the train will start from Dhaka at 5.25am and reach Tongi at 6.10am. It will leave Tongi at 7.40am and will be at Dhaka at 8.35am. The train will not operate on Fridays.

"Railway is the nation's asset. BNP chief Khaleda Zia is siding with the Jamaat-Shibir, who set fire on trains, attack rail stations. Jamaat-Shibir is the enemy of this nation," Haque told the launching ceremony at Tongi Junction.  

Jamaat-e-Islami and its student affiliate, Islami Chhatra Shibir, had systematically targeted the rail sector last year. They had set on fire rail tracks and trains, removed fishplates and slippers and pulled out tracks to force the government to stop 1971 war crimes trials.

Trains and railway stations in different parts of the country were set on fire then. Jamaat activists had also uprooted tracks that caused accidents.