MR Amin, Chattogram 

While Bangladesh Railway continues to receive massive annual government subsidies amounting to roughly Tk 1,500 crore to sustain passenger services, deep-rooted mismanagement and revenue leakages have once again cast a shadow over its operations. A glaring 15-year anomaly involving uncounted seats across multiple Shovon-class coaches has exposed a massive financial loophole, raising serious questions about administrative oversight and corruption within the sector.

According to investigative findings, specific Shovon-class coaches—such as those numbered 1900, 2017, 2021, 7014, 7055, 7514, 8501, and 9387—are equipped with 68 seats, while others like 7004, 7008, 7056, and 7063 feature 64 seats. However, under the central online ticketing system, only 60 seats per coach are made available for regular purchase.

Despite remaining absent from official sales records, these additional seats are consistently occupied during train journeys. Conservative estimates suggest that unrecorded fares from these unlisted seats could account for millions of takas in lost public revenue annually—totalling an estimated Tk 25 to 30 crore over the past 15 years. Critics argue that while ordinary passengers struggle to secure tickets through official channels at standard fares, these unaccounted seats are routinely exploited by dishonest syndicates, brokers, and corrupt railway employees through informal arrangements.

Weighing in on the alarming discrepancy, M. R. Monju, General Secretary of the Bangladesh Nationalist Railway Workers' and Employees' Party, sharply criticized the systemic failure: "Public assets belong to the people. No matter how small the fare for a single seat may be, the amount multiplies into crores of taka over thousands of journeys. If only 60 tickets are sold in coaches with 68 or 64 seats, where does the money for the remaining seats go? We demand a transparent explanation, a rigorous and impartial investigation, and strict legal action against those responsible."

When contacted, Bangladesh Railway Eastern Zone's Chief Commercial Manager (CCM), Sujit Kumar Biswas, acknowledged the existence of coaches with additional seating capacity, explaining that they are frequently deployed as supplementary units. He noted that instructions were recently issued to the respective Divisional Commercial Officers (DCOs) to conduct pre-departure seat counts two hours before train departures, making surplus seats available as standing tickets at counters.

Nevertheless, transport analysts and commuters maintain that remedial measures coming after years of silent revenue loss are insufficient. Independent watchdogs are calling for a thorough judicial inquiry into whether software management negligence or deliberate administrative collusion allowed this lucrative loophole to persist unchecked for a decade and a half at the public's expense.