Bangladesh Railway Authority has suspended all local, commuter, and mail train services suspended across the country to control the spread of coronavirus.

The services were suspended from Monday (Mar 23) midnight and will remain suspended till further notice. 

Currently, 257 such trains are functioning across Bangladesh.

Railway's Director General Mia Jahan confirmed the matter over the phone on Tuesday morning.

He said: “Only inter district and freight trains are functioning right now. Since the tickets of inter-district trains were already sold to passengers, we have not suspended it yet.

“We will take decision regarding suspension of inter-district trains in a meeting today [Tuesday]. Even if we choose to suspend it, then it will be applicable from March 26.”

Covid-19, a new strain of coronavirus, which was first reported in China’s Wuhan has killed at least 16,558 people across the world and infected 381,649 till date. 

At least 102,429 people have recovered from the virus which has spread to 195 countries. 

As of Monday, Bangladesh confirmed three coronavirus deaths since the outbreak of the deadly pandemic in the country. The number of total infected now stands at 33.

On the same day, Bangladesh government declared a 10-day shutdown, effective from March 26 to April 4, to battle the spread of the coronavirus.

Both the private and public sectors, except emergency services, would come to a temporary halt. 

Educational institutions will stay closed during this period but banks will remain open to facilitate the financial transaction for their clients.

On the other hand, Bangladesh’s armed forces will start assisting the administration in every divisional and district town from Tuesday, to ensure that people maintain social distance and are taking precautionary measures to prevent the novel coronavirus from spreading further.