FE Report
Advance train ticket sale ended on Saturday with a large number of home-goers still in search of tickets.
They were now looking for tickets of different modes of transport to celebrate the holy Eid-ul-Azha with their near and dear ones.
The Kamalapur Railway Station (KRS) witnessed considerably higher crowd on Friday and Saturday when advance tickets for September 23 and 24 were sold.
Apart from KRS, hundreds of ticket-seekers were seen anxiously moving from one ticket selling counter to another of various modes of transport since early hours to get tickets.
Many home-bound people alleged that they had managed tickets from black marketers at much higher rates while many others said they failed to collect tickets even after offering higher prices.
However, private bus operators said most tickets for September 22 to 24 for Rajshahi, Rangpur and Khulna divisions have already been sold out.
The Eid will be celebrated on September 25 and September 23 (Wednesday) is the last office day before Eid.
Visiting the KRS at 10:30 am on Saturday, the FE correspondent found hundreds of people in a state of hope and despair over getting tickets.
But there were fewer crowds on the day compared to that of Friday.
Apart from the ticket-seekers, presence of regular passengers at the station increased significantly on the day.
KRS manager Shitangshu Chakravarty told the FE that besides hundreds of regular passengers, a minimum of 20,000 people stood in the queue on Saturday to get tickets for September 24.
He said 9,500 tickets of inter-city train are sold from the KRS counters everyday.
The people, who were far away in the long queue, were totally hopeless.
The serial of Md Adnan Ali, a painting company employee, was 150 at the counter no 15 at the KRS.
Mr Ali was in despair over getting tickets for September 24 of Lalmoni Express.
Ali said if he failed, then he would have to go for searching bus tickets to go to his village home at Aditmari, Lamonirhat.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) secretary Advocate Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan told the FE that the government should take action to stop sale of tickets at black markets.
He said holidays should be increased by two or three days more to minimise pressure of vehicles in particular days ahead of the festival.
He also said there is no alternative to raising railway capacity to tackle the rush of more than 9.0 million home-goers.
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