Black marketeers capitalise on home-goers\\\' rush

The home-goers are facing immense sufferings ahead of the two major festivals-Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja - due to shortage of tickets of different modes of transport.
Many of the ticket aspirants alleged that a large number of tickets of bus, train and launch have gone to the hands of black marketers which is forcing them to pay much higher price to purchase tickets.
Md Motaher Ali, a buying house official, told the FE Sunday evening at Kalyanpur counter of SR Paribahan that he was searching for tickets of Lalmonirhat-bound A/C bus for October 4.
"Counter managers told me that there is no ticket left for the day," he said.
"Later I bought two tickets at Tk 1,200 each against the normal price of Tk 700 from a man who was searching for ticket aspirants in front of the counter."
"He told me that he had several tickets for October 3 and 4 and if I needed more I could contact him later," he said.
Md Nabi, ticketing booth manager at SR Paribahan, admitted that there is a strong syndicate of the black marketeers.
"But, it is very tough to catch them. A group of them stood in the queue very early on the first day of the advance ticket sale," he said.
An official at Hanif Paribahan told the FE that many of the ticketing booth managers have direct linkage with the black marketeers.
"It is an unofficial rule of the private bus operators that no one can get more than 6 tickets in advance before Eid," he said.
The syndicate becomes active when demand for tickets reaches the peak.
With the help of the ticketing managers, the black marketeers collect more than 10-12 tickets of a particular bus, he said.
He said a significant number of tickets for October 3 and 4 have gone to the hands of black marketeers.
Transport operators said demand for tickets is much higher this time as two major festivals are going to be held at a close time and official vacations have also fallen at the same time.
Last official day before Eid is October 2, so demand for October 2 and 3 was the highest, said Md Awal, manager of Nabil Paribahan at Mazar Road counter.
Railway tickets are also being blacked as nearly 1,400 tickets remain unsold everyday, sources said.
Advance ticket sale of Bangladesh Railway started from September 26.
Sunday was the third day of the official sale when tickets for October 3 were given.
Having visited the Kamalapur Railway Station (KRS) on the day the FE correspondent found that at best 20 persons could get tickets per hour from every counter of the KRS.
Tickets were given from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm that means only 2,400 persons were able to collect 9,600 tickets from its 15 counters.
Nearly 11,000 tickets for the aspirants were allocated for KRS counters out of the total 18,500, a BR official said.
He said nearly 1,300-1,400 tickets are being unsold everyday most of which are going to the hands of black marketeers.
Abir Ahsan Pulak, a Jahangirnagar University student, told the FE that after failing to collect tickets from the queue he bought three tickets for October 3 of Nilshagor Express at Tk 800 each from a black marketeer against the actual price of Tk 460.
 "A/C, non A/C, berth -- all kinds of seats are available with them," he said.
However, the launch operators, both private and public, will start their special services from October 2.
The private launch owners this year didn't make any announce on advance ticket sale.
On a visit to the Sadarghat area in the city Sunday this correspondent found that tickets for all the cabins of launches for October 1 to 4 were sold out.  
Launch officials said that tickets have been sold at the beginning of this month.
Many of the ticket seekers alleged that significant numbers of the tickets of cabins are allocated for the high-ups of Barisal region.
And a big portion went to the hands of black marketeers, they said.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC), Bangladesh Railway (BR), Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association, Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Samity, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) and Biman Bangladesh Airlines, about 2.5 million people usually leave Dhaka per day.
Of the total number of people, about 2.32 million leave the city by road, 0.15 million by waterway transports, 0.06 million by train and 7,500-8,000 by air.

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