Advance bus tickets for home-bound passengers ahead of the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr will be put on sale from July 03 (Friday), insiders said.
Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association (BBTOA) took the decision at a meeting on Saturday, they said.
Bangladesh Railway (BR) will start selling advance train tickets from July 09, according to officials.
The tickets for July 13 will be available on July 09, tickets for July 14 will be sold on July 10, tickets for July 15 will be sold on July 11, tickets for July 16 on July 12 and tickets for July 17 will be available on July 13.
Meanwhile, the decision of some key bus operators of northern and north-western regions to sell major portion of their tickets online has sparked fear of more sufferings in getting tickets among the long-distant passengers.
Homebound people of districts like Panchagarh, Dinajpur, Nilphamari, Thakurgaon, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram and Chapai Nawabganj have expressed their concern that tickets allocated for these districts might be sold out to people buying from other districts, if the major portion is sold through online.
Private bus operators are going to face an onrush of homebound people ahead of the country's major religious festival, to be observed across the country on July 18 or 19, depending on the sighting of the Shawal moon.
Operators are expecting that demand of tickets for July 14, 15 and 16 will be higher, particularly for July 16, as it is the weekend (Thursday) before Eid.
Manager of north-western region-bound Nabil Paribahan Md Shafik said they will start selling advance bus ticket for the sixteen districts of Rajshahi and Rangpur divisions from July 03.
"All tickets will be traded through online at Shohoj.com," he said.
Md Nabi, Kalyanpur counter manager of SR Paribahan, another northern-region based operator, said: "So far I know our company will start selling tickets from next Friday, and people can collect major portion of the tickets through online."
Passengers from distant northern districts on Sunday claimed that online sale of tickets of Nabil Paribahan or SR Paribahan will deprive hundreds of passengers in Nilphamari, Panchagarh, Thakurgaon, Dinajpur, Kurigram and Lalmonirhat.
Md Shajibur Rahman, a private bank official, told the FE that people of Sirajganj and Bogra will be able to collect tickets of Nilphamari and Panchagarh through online, as the districts are on the same route and ticket price is not a matter before Eid.
Md Mahfuzur Rahman, an official at a paint company in Dhaka and resident of Debiganj under Panchagarh, told the FE: "It is the moral responsibility of the companies to protect interest of the people of distant northern districts."
He also said selling tickets of all districts at a time at least gives a chance to the people of those districts to procure tickets through less competition.
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