People wishing to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with families in their country homes find it tough to get advance bus and train tickets as most of the tickets are sold out in a
few hours after the counters open every day.
The Bangladesh Railway, which began selling advance tickets on Friday, said all tickets for August 4 had been sold out on the first day. At 1:00pm on Saturday, few tickets were available for August 5. The railway will sell tickets for August 6 today.
Bus operators also claimed that most of the tickets for August 7 had already been sold out.
At Kamalapur railway station, most of the advance train tickets for August 5 were sold out in four hours after the counters opened at 9:00am on Saturday.
Many home-goers said that they did not get tickets and blamed poor management for their difficulties and shortage of tickets.
Tickets for air-conditioned and first class seats in Chittagong-bound Turna-Nishitha, Chattala Express, Shubarna Express, Mahanagar Godhuli, Mahanagar Probhati, Dinajpur-bound Drutajan Express and Ekata Express, Rangpur-bound Rangpur Express, Tarakandi-bound Agnibina Express, Rajshahi-bound Silkcity Express and Upakul Express, Sirajganj-bound Sirajganj Express, Kishoreganj-bound Egarasindur Pravati and Egarasindur Godhuli for August 5 vanished in two hours.
No tickets for these trains were available after 1:00pm on Saturday.
‘I will come to the station again as I did not get AC tickets for any Rajshahi-bound trains today,’ said Hafizur Rahman, a passenger.
Sukumar Barua, a Chittagong-bound passenger, alleged that many tickets had been sold out to touts.
But Kamalapur railway station manager Mohammad Khairul Bashar told New Age that the overall situation was satisfactory.
‘Everyday we are selling about 17,000 advance tickets, of which 25 per cent is allocated for e-ticketing, five per cent for VIP persons and another five per cent for railway employees and officials,’ he said.
The railway authorities expect that this year a total of 58,100 passengers might leave Dhaka by train every day to celebrate Eid in the outlying areas.
Besides adding extra carriages, the BR will also run seven pairs of special trains on Dhaka-Dewanganj-Dhaka, Chittagong-Chandpur-Chittagong, Parbatipur-Dhaka-Parbatipur, Dhaka-Khulna-Dhaka, Bhairab-Kishoreganj-Bhairab and Mymensingh-Kishoreganj-Mymensingh routes three days before and five to seven days after the Eid.
Bus operators, including Shyamoli Paribahan, Hanif Enterprise, Subarna Express and JAR Enterprise at Gabtoli bus terminal told New Age on Saturday that most of the tickets for August 7 for travel to northern districts had been sold out.
An employee of Shohag Paribahan Private Limited said that they had no tickets left for August 5-8 on Dhaka-Khulna route.
‘We have only a few tickets for Sylhet, Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar route for those dates,’ he said.
-With New Age input
