Bangladesh Railway (BR) will start selling advance tickets on June 14 for the train journey on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.

Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujon announced the date at a press conference at the Rail Bhaban in the capital on Tuesday.

Advance train tickets for June 24 will be sold on June 14, for 25 June on 15 June, 26 June on 16 June, 27 June on 17 June, and 28 June on 18 June.

Sales of return tickets will start on 22 June. The tickets for July 2 will be available on 22 June, for July 3 on June 23, for July 4 on June 24, for July 5 on June 25 and 6 July on 26 June.

Although all the train tickets will be sold online like the last Eid-ul-Fitr, the authorities have brought some changes this time. The tickets will be released online in two phases.

All inter-district train tickets for western regions will be available from 8:00am,   while tickets for eastern routes will be sold from 12:00pm.

The railway authorities said eight pairs of special trains will be operated for the homebound passengers on the occasion of this Eid-ul-Azha.

“Two pairs of special trains will run from Bhairab to Mymensingh on the Eid day for trips to Sholakia Eidgah Maidan. Two more pairs will be run from Dhaka Cantonment to Panchagarh and Lalmonirhat before Eid and six days after Eid,” he added.

Apart from this, a total of 218 additional engines have been planned to be added. Of them, 116 will be used for the eastern region and 102 in the western region for Eid journey.

Only stations at Kamalapur, Cantonment, Airport and Gazipur’s Joydebpur will sell tickets for passengers who seek to travel standing.

The minister also said the decision has been taken to operate a pair of new intercity train on Dhaka-Chilahati route from June 4.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will inaugurate the train service.