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RAJSHAHI, Apr 5: Hundreds of train passengers in Rajshahi division have been left at the mercy of the private lessees of trains as their services are veby disappointing, it was alleged.
There are scores of complaints that the trains of the west zone do not run on schedule. The schedules of the trains depend on the whims of the lessees.
The time-table of the trains is also determined in such a way that most of the passengers have to avail themselves of buses rather than trains.
As for example, the Dhaka-bound Padma Express was earlier scheduled to start from Rajshahi at 7:00 am and arrive at Dhaka at 1:00 pm.
Despite passengers' demand for setting the departure time from Rajshahi at 4:00 or 5:00 am so that the people can reach the capital earlier to attend their offices in time, in the departure time was rescheduled at 9-00 am.
As a result, a passenger loses the entire day to reach Dhaka. It is alleged that the time-table was fixed after getting kickbacks from the bus owners of the division.
The lessees have also changed the time-table of four trains running on the Santahar-Lalmonirhat route leaving the passengers travelling on the Bogra-Santahar-Bonarpara route to suffer a lot. No passenger can do his jobs at Bogra travelling by a train running as per rescheduled time-table.
At least 50,000 job holders, day-labourers and students visit Bogra daily for their work from Santahar and other stations but due to the time-table, all those passengers have to travel by buses, rather than by the trains.
Before the handover of trains to the lease-holding companies, the departure times of the trains were fixed at 6:00 am, 7:30 am, 7:00 pm and 11 pm daily from Santahar and the trains were scheduled to reach Bogra in two hours.
There being no train to reach Santahar from Bogra throughout the night, hundreds of passengers bound for Naogaon, Santahar, Natore and Abdulpur either remain stranded for the whole night at Bogra or they board buses.
Ten trains now run in the west zone under private management. The lessees of those trains are earning millions of taka by carrying passengers and goods but facilities of the passengers have not been increased, sources alleged.
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