Eastern Zone train fares to rise from 20 Dec
According to railway officials, pontage charge has been introduced to recover additional expenditure on the maintenance of old bridges and culverts, as well as to fund increased investment needs.
Bangladesh Railway has decided to raise fares on all passenger trains in the Eastern Zone, as pontage charges counted as extra distance will now be applied on 11 bridges. The revised fares will take effect from 20 December.
Yesterday (8 December), after receiving approval from the Ministry of Railways, the commercial division of the Eastern Zone issued instructions to implement the new fares, which have already been applied to advance tickets from 10 December.
According to railway officials, the additional fee, known as a pontage charge, is a longstanding system where bridges and other major infrastructure are considered as extra distance when calculating fares.
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They said the pontage charge has been introduced to recover additional expenditure on the maintenance of old bridges and culverts, as well as to fund increased investment needs.
Previously, each kilometre of bridge was counted as 17 kilometres for fare calculation, but under the new rule, one kilometre of bridge will be counted as 25 kilometres. As a result, distances on various routes have increased by 4 to 51 kilometres, pushing fares up by Tk5 to Tk226 depending on the route.
Asked about the fare adjustment, Bangladesh Railway Director General Md Afzal Hossain told The Business Standard, "Rail fares were last raised in 2016. While pontage charges were imposed on the Padma Bridge and several other railway structures in the Western Zone, they were not applied in the Eastern Zone."
"Now pontage charges are being added for only 11 bridges in the Eastern Zone. On the Dhaka-Chattogram route, the minimum increase is just Tk15. The fare hike for general passengers has been kept minimal," he added.
How much fares are rising on each route
According to Bangladesh Railway data, pontage charges are being imposed on 11 bridges across six routes. These are: Dhaka-Chattogram, Dhaka-Cox's Bazar, Dhaka-Sylhet, Chattogram-Sylhet, Chattogram-Jamalpur and Dhaka-Dewanganj.
Dhaka-Chattogram route: Fare distance increases from 346 km to 381 km, raising fares by Tk15 to Tk159 across all classes.
Dhaka-Cox's Bazar route: Distance rises from 535 km to 586 km, increasing fares by up to Tk226.
Dhaka-Sylhet route: Distance increases to 350 km, resulting in a fare hike of Tk15 to Tk127 depending on class.
Chattogram-Sylhet route: Additional distance pushes fares up by Tk10 to Tk87.
Chattogram-Jamalpur route: A 17 km increase raises fares by Tk10 to Tk69.
Dhaka-Dewanganj route: An extra 4 km leads to a minor adjustment, with fares rising by Tk5 to Tk17 in some classes.
