With just one or two days left for the Eid festival, people particularly of Northern and South districts who earn their livelihood in the Chittagong city, are on their last
bid to grab a travel ticket to celebrate the occasion with their relatives.
Those who booked their advance tickets have already started their journey while lower income people in their hundreds have begun their journey since Tuesday, bus counters sources said.
Sharif, a teenage boy working in a garage at Muradpur in the city, said he got the most desired ticket to go to his house Feni but alleged that he had to pay Tk 30 extra for the ticket.
Before Eid, I used to go to Feni by bus with Tk 120 which was at present Tk 150, he alleged.
Mohammed Qaium from Chadpur, who works as a construction worker in Chittagong, said bus fare for Chadpur was Tk 270 before Ramadan which was at present Tk 300.
During a visit to the city’s bus counters, including those at Colonel Hut, from where mostly lower income people buy their tickets, no fare chart was seen at any counter, though it is mandatory for every bus counter.
When contacted, inter-district bus transport association secretary Kofil Uddin said there was no reason to worry about the fares, which he said was much lower than what the government had fixed.
‘In spite of that, we will take necessary steps if allegation about extra fares comes to us,’ he added.
Buses, locally known as Mofiz, which target mostly labourers, were found to carry excessive passengers.
Three to four people, on behalf of each transport service, including Mukta Transport, Vola Transport, Jonaki Transport, Disa Transport, Meghna Transport, were seen to wooing the passengers and sometimes even forcing them into their buses.
However, no instant tickets are available in the bus counters of Hanif, Soudia, Shamoli bus services.
Instant ticket can only be found if anyone returns his ticket to the counter, said Mohammad Billal, booking master of Hanif Paribahan.
Besides, Railway sold out return ticket for August 14 on Monday while there was no ticket available for leaving Chittagong.
‘We have tried to accommodate extra passenger by adding compartments and increasing the number of trip but it was not sufficient compared to the demand,’ said Shamsul Alam, station manager of Chittagong railway.
On the other hand, people of Swandhip and Hatia have been left in the lurch as only two ships have been assigned to carry about one million passengers.
Not getting the chance to board the ships, people were seen to set off their journey in trawler, a risky water vehicle in the turbulent sea.
‘We so far have two ships for the homebound passengers while another ship named MV Baro Awlia is expected to join BIWTC on August 7 to lessen the excessive pressure of passengers,’ said Mohammad Nasir Uddin, manager (passenger) of the Chittagong BIWTC.
-With New Age input
