Tickets of transports not available Tremendous rush of home-goers during Eid-ul-Azha

Yasir Wardad A large number of home-goers' desire to celebrate the coming Eid-ul-Azha with their families at villages may remain unfulfilled as thousands of ticket aspirants are yet to manage a single one due to crisis of tickets. The ticket seekers have been moving to stations of various modes of transport since early hours to avail tickets. But most of them returned disappointed with gloomy faces at end of the day for not getting tickets. However, many fortunate persons, who had succeeded in collecting tickets, told the FE that they had managed the most precious item before such an occasion from black marketeers at a higher rate. Ashikur Rahman Ashik, a buying house official, was standing in queue at the Kamalapur rail station in the capital Saturday noon. Talking to the FE he said queue was for tickets of November 5 which will be given Sunday morning. He said anxiously that he was not sure whether he would get tickets or not as he was behind 100 people. Thousands of ticket seekers thronged the station and were standing on the line Saturday noon to ensure tickets to go to their distant villages safely. According to the Bangladesh Railway (BR), the tickets for November 2 to November 6 are on sale from October 27 to November 1. Mr Ashik said, he failed to collect tickets of buses even after standing for hours at the row on October 23 at Gabtoli and then he came to Kamalapur rail station. Zakir Mollah, a private bank official, was seeking tickets of Satkhira at the Sohag Paribahan (a private bus transport company) counter at Panthapath Saturday evening. Talking to the FE he said he was seeking three tickets since Friday. Zakir, however said, most of the tickets had been sold out to the black marketeers. He said many of the brokers were charging Tk 850 to Tk 950 against the actual fare of Tk 550 to Tk 600 for the tickets of November 3 to November 6. The demand for bus tickets for the three particular days is very high because government holidays fall on Friday (November 4), Saturday (November 5), Sunday (November 6), Monday (November 7 Eid-ul-Azha) and Tuesday (November 8). Many of the Barisal division inhabitants in the capital told the FE that total 2300 cabins of nearly 135 launches and ships were sold out in advance before Eid days. Normal tickets for water transports are also being sold in black market, they claimed. Delwar Hossain Dilu, a high school teacher in Dhaka, came to Sadarghat Saturday to collect a double cabin of Jom-Jom launch for November 3 for going to his village home at Amtoli in Barguna district. Talking to the FE he said, "The authorities are telling us that all the cabins as well as normal tickets for November 3 to November 6 were sold out." "I collected four normal tickets. Eid ticket cost me Tk 650 against the normal price of Tk 250," he said. He said single cabins were offered for Tk 1500 to Tk 2000 against the actual cost of Tk 800 by the black marketeers. According to the BIWTA, Tk 1.18 per kilometre for the first 100 kilometre distance and after that Tk 0.88 will be counted for per km distance. Although Mr Dilu could collect tickets but a garment worker Mosharraf of Bhola district, garment worker Arzina Begum of Lalmohon in Bhola, shoe maker Mamun of Patuakhali, among others, had no idea how to enjoy the Eid with their families. Ms Arzina told the FE that she would come to Sadarghat on November 5 to fight to capture some space in any launch. A high official of Bangladesh Inland Waterways Transport Authority (BIWTA) told the FE that no cabin ticket for the days from November 3 to November 6 was available. He said, "There is no chance of black marketing as every time media persons are monitoring the situation". Chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) Khandker Shamsuddoha told the FE: "People's income level has increased significantly. Many of the middle-class families now want cabin tickets to make comfortable journey. So, all the tickets have been sold out as those are very few in number compared to the demand."