In the first nine months of the current fiscal year, Bangladesh Railway’s Eastern Zone has earned Tk 1.50 billion more than the previous year. Most of this income has come from passenger transport. However, revenue from freight transport has declined again this year.

Until March of the current fiscal year, the Eastern Zone earned about Tk 9.10 billion, which is higher than the target. In the same period last fiscal year, earnings were over Tk 7.59 billion.

The railway earns revenue from a total of eight sectors, but the main sources are passenger and freight transport. This time, 86.5 per cent of total revenue came from passenger transport. Income from freight and parcel transport stood at Tk 717.7 million, which is only 7.9 per cent of total earnings.

Although passenger transport revenue has increased due to various charges and withdrawal of previous benefits, there have been no effective measures to improve passenger service quality. Issues such as trains not running on schedule, failing to reach destinations on time, engine failures en route, derailments, suffering despite having tickets but not getting seats, and stone-throwing incidents on popular routes continue.