Dhaka to Sylhet

In May 1921 tea workers walked out of the gardens of the Chargola valley, in what was then the Sylhet district, and gathered at Karimganj railway station to go home. According to the labour historian Sukomal Sen, European railway officials there ordered that no tickets be sold to them. The government's own report says many forced their way on to the trains without tickets, and others walked. The line they were trying to leave on had been built for the tea they were leaving.

It is still the way into the tea country. The Assam Bengal Railway laid it through Kulaura between 1896 and 1898 for Assam's planters, and the branch to Sylhet followed between 1912 and 1915. Thousands of the workers reached Chandpur, where on the night of 20 May 1921 the station was cleared by force; accounts differ on who did it and on how many were hurt or killed. Railway staff struck within days, and tea workers still mark 20 May as their own day.

Four named trains now run from Dhaka to Sylhet in each direction, on metre-gauge track, in between six and a half hours and seven and three quarters. Beyond Shaistaganj the plain gives way to low hills planted with tea, and then to the Lawachara forest, which the line runs straight through. Sreemangal, four hours out on the morning train, is the place to get off.

The Sylhet trains leave from Kamalapur behind, most days, a locomotive of Class 2900: an EMD GT18LC-2 design of 1,500 horsepower, built under licence by Hyundai Rotem between 1999 and 2013, thirty-nine in all. The Parabat Express has run since 2 September 2016 with air-braked coaches from PT INKA of Indonesia.

The first call is Biman Bandar, the airport station, twenty-three minutes out.

The shared first half

As far as Bhairab Bazar this is the Chattogram main line: north through Tongi and east across the flat country round Narsingdi, then over the Meghna. Bridges on this route are billed by the kilometre too, since the pontage charge of December 2025 applies to the Dhaka to Sylhet fare table. At Akhaura, where the Chattogram trains turn south, none of the four Sylhet expresses stops. They run on north-east along the line the Assam Bengal Railway opened between 1896 and 1898.

Into the tea

Past Shaistaganj the ground begins to fold, and the rows of tea start to come down to the track. In 2010 the Sylhet division held 135 of the country's 162 gardens. Sreemangal, the town the gardens are centred on, is the next major call.

Beyond it the train enters the Lawachara forest, which the line divides. The hoolock gibbons here travel through the canopy, and the forest department has strung rope bridges above the rails so they can cross. A 2021 survey counted 43 gibbons in 13 families in the forest. Bhanugach and Shamshernagar are the next calls, depending on the train.

Kulaura and the branch

Kulaura Junction is the point where the old main line and the Sylhet train part. The original railway carried straight on through Shahbazpur to Karimganj, 57 kilometres from here, and on to Badarpur and Assam. That is the line the workers of 1921 came down towards Chandpur. The frontier of 1947 now crosses it, and the section to Shahbazpur was closed in 2002; a rebuilding financed by India was reported 30 per cent complete in 2021.

The Sylhet train takes the branch of 1912 to 1915 instead, through Baramchal and Maijgaon, the last stop before the terminus. A dual-gauge rebuilding of the track from Akhaura, approved in 2019 and due for June 2025, has not been built, so the line remains metre gauge. The train comes to rest at Sylhet station, under a roof of white concrete umbrellas opened in 2004, a short ride from the Surma river.

Four named intercity trains run in each direction. Times are Bangladesh Railway's own, from its train-information service, as of November 2026, in local time (BST, UTC+6). Every train from Dhaka also calls at Biman Bandar, 23 minutes after leaving.

Dhaka to Sylhet

Sylhet to Dhaka

The Jayentika makes the most calls and is the slowest in the down direction. The Paharika Express and the Udayan Express link Sylhet with Chattogram over the same line, joining it at Akhaura.

Trains are retimed at short notice. The live version is at eticket.railway.gov.bd (opens in a new tab).

Bangladesh Railway sells its own seats, online and at station counters. Online tickets open ten days before travel, and buying online needs a registered account, verified against a Bangladeshi national ID or birth certificate.

Fares are set by the railway and last changed on 20 December 2025, when the pontage charge began counting long bridges on this route as extra distance. The mail train, at Tk 140, is the cheapest way along the line, and a commuter seat is Tk 170.

No rail pass covers Bangladesh. Interrail and Eurail are European products, the Indian and Sri Lankan passes stop at their own borders, and Bangladesh Railway has no tourist pass of its own.

With an air-conditioned chair to Sylhet at Tk 788, a pass would have little to discount. Seats are limited by the ten-day booking window rather than the price, and no ticket type changes that. As of November 2026.

The journey divides naturally in two. Sreemangal and Bhanugach are the stations for the forest, the lake and the middle of the tea country; Sylhet has the shrine, the bridge and the swamp forest to the north, which stands in water from May to early October.

Sreemangal is the base for the gardens and the forest, Sylhet for the city. The Upaban Express reaches Sylhet at 05:00 and Sreemangal at 02:09, well before any check-in, so the morning Parabat is the easier way to arrive.

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