Railway minister admits glitch in Eid ticket sale thru’ app

Railway minister admits glitch in Eid ticket sale thru’ app

Railway Minister Nurul Islam Sujan today acknowledged the glitch in sale of advance train tickets through app and said the unsold tickets will be on sale at counters after five days from today.

It is the fault of the railway ministry authorities as well as the app company -- CNS, the minister said while visiting Kamalapur Railway Station around 10:30am after complaints of the glitch was raised.

“Each year we try to sell tickets without any hassle and take certain measures regarding that. But the demand is much higher than our arrangement (this year),” the railway minister acknowledged.

Asked whether any measures would be taken against CNS, the minister said, “We signed a deal with CNS in 2007 which is scheduled to end this year. But if they fail this time, we won’t renew the deal.”

A three-member delegation of the Anti-Corruption Commission led by Assistant Director Md Alamgir also visited the station after receiving a complaint on their hotline about the glitch in the app for sale of tickets.

The ACC received the complaint this morning when a ticket seeker said the CNS app had deducted money through the app but did not issue the ticket.

The complaint prompted the ACC delegation to visit the railway station where they confirmed the allegations.

Deputy Assistant Director of ACC Monirul Islam urged the railway authorities to solve the issue as soon as possible and also that mobile court should be deployed at the counters to avoid corruption and mismanagement.

The employee of CNS Bangladesh who was deployed at the Kamalapur Railway Station could not give much details on the matter but told the ACC authorities that at least 1,752 tickets were sold through the app powered by CNS since this morning.