Bangladesh Railway (BR) will resume railway operations from today (Monday), after more than three weeks.
They will resume operation of goods train today, while mail, express, local and commuter trains will start services on August 13, intercity trains on August 15.
Tickets for intercity trains will be available online from 5:00pm today.
However, operation of Parabat Express and Jamalpur Express trains will remain suspended, Nahid Hasan Khan, director (public relations) of Bangladesh Railway, announced the developments in a press release on Sunday.
Operation of passenger trains were suspended since July 18 amid the nationwide violence centring the quota reform movement.
Some goods trains continued to operate for one or two days after July 18.
However, BR continued to operate oil-tanker carrying trains.
Metro rail operations on Aug 17
The Dhaka Metro Rail operations will resume on August 17, except at the two stations that were vandalised during the violence centring the quota reform movement last month.
MAN Siddique, the managing director of Dhaka Mass Transit Company Limited, confirmed the matter on Sunday.
He said they have started full technical preparations to resume operations and they are expected to carry out trial runs within two or three days.
"We will be ready to resume operations within a maximum of seven days," he said.
Asked about the two stations -- Kazipara and Mirpur-10 -- that were vandalised, he said the committee formed to assess the damages and all other technical issues is yet to submit the report.
"We are hoping the committee will submit the report soon, and we will move forward on the basis of the report," he said, adding that operations will run excluding those two stations for the time being.
Elevated expressway resumes toll collection from 3pm Sunday
The authority of the Dhaka Elevated Expressway has formally resumed operation of the important expressway from 3:00pm on Sunday.
However, entry ramps at Banani and Mohakhali and an exit ramp at FDC (Karwan Bazar) will remain closed.
"We have resumed formal operation of expressway by starting toll collection from vehicles at Airport ramp from 3:00pm today," Captain (retd) Hasib Hasan Khan, manager (operations and maintenance) of First Dhaka Elevated Expressway Company Ltd (FDEE), which operates the expressway, said.
Miscreants torched the Banani toll booth on July 18 and the Mohakhali toll booth the following day amid unrest centring the quota reform movement. The expressway's operations have been suspended formally since July 18.
However, after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina-led government on August 5, people started to use the expressway without paying toll as the toll collection mechanism was absent.
Hasib said they have closed the two entry ramps at Banani and Mohakhali as the toll plazas were torched. They also closed the exit ramp at FDC gate as one of the pillars of the expressway there was set on fire.
"We are checking the pillar and will take next step after its outcome," he added.
The first elevated expressway was opened to traffic partially from Airport area to Farmgate in September last year and the FDC gate was opened early this year, giving much relief to the city commuters.
Over 50,000 vehicles use the flyover daily on an average and they used to collect Tk 40 to Tk 45 lakh toll daily, Hasib said.
