Hundreds of aspirants failed to buy tickets as the advance sale began on Thursday at the Kamalapur Railway Station (KRS) and Chittagong Railway Station.
The KRS witnessed a heavy rush at its every counter, as people thronged the station to obtain advance tickets for going home ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr.
During a visit to the KRS on the day, the FE correspondent found that a good number of ticket seekers returned empty-handed as the counter officials declared that tickets for different destinations were sold out.
The Bangladesh Railway (BR) authorities are selling advance tickets from July 9 to 13 for the trips on July 13 to 17.
If the new moon of Eid is not sighted on July 17, tickets for July 18 will be sold after that evening.
The return tickets for the journey on July 20 to 24 will be sold during July 16 to July 20. The tickets will be available at district railway stations.
Shahidar Rahman, a school teacher, told the FE that he had been standing in the queue for tickets since Wednesday night.
Mr Rahman's serial number in the queue was 90. Still he failed to get tickets of the Lalmoni Express.
"My turn came at 10:30 am, when the counter official said all allotted tickets for the train (Dhaka-Lalmonirhat) had been sold out," he said.
"Most tickets are in the hands of quota allottees and black marketers," he claimed.
Md Azim Uddin, official at a real-estate company, was in the queue for air-conditioned (AC) compartment tickets at the counter no-5 at the KRS.
Mr Azim said he failed to get tickets although there were just 50 men ahead of him at the counter.
"When my turn came at 11:00 am, the ticketing manager said AC tickets for July 13 of the Mahanagar Godhuli and Probhati were sold out," he said.
Manager of KRS Shitangshu Chakravarty told the FE that a total of 50,000 tickets were being sold at the KRS counters, of which 18,500 were of intercity trains.
He commented that the number of ticket aspirants was ten times the seats available, as was in the yesteryears.
"We are trying our best to provide our best services with our limited capacity," he said.
Railway Police, Railway Nirapatta Bahini and RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) members have been deployed at railway stations across the country to check black marketing of tickets.
The railway minister said on a normal day 0.18 million tickets are sold across the country but the BR is expecting to make available around 0.25 million tickets ahead of Eid.
However, a BR official said about 169 coaches were going to be added to the existing fleet while a total of 225 locomotives would be in operation across the country like last Eid.
Five pairs of trains will also run on four routes three days before the Eid and seven days after the Eid while two pairs of trains will remain in operation on the Eid day on the Bhairab-Kishoreganj-Bhairab and Mymensingh-Kishoreganj-Mymensingh routes for the devotees who will attend Eid prayer at Sholakia Eidgah in Kishoreganj district.
To monitor the overall situation, a central control room has been opened at the KRS apart of four divisional control rooms set up.
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com
No train tickets for hundreds as sales begin
FE Report | Published: July 10, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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