Anisul Islam Noor :The Bangladesh Railway (BR) will start selling advance tickets for home-bound Eid passengers from today (Wednesday). To make the journey comfortable, a pair of new trains will be introduced on the Dhaka-Chittagong-Dhaka route before the Eid. The BR will also run seven pairs of special trains to carry Eid passengers on different routes, Railways Minister M. Mujibul Haq told The New Nation.Mujibul Haq said, the tickets for July 1 will be sold on June 22 while the tickets for July 2 on June 23, tickets for July 3 on June 24, tickets for July 4 on June 25 and the tickets of for July 5 on June 26.He said the advance tickets will be sold from 8 am at Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka, and Chittagong Railway Station under the supervision of BR officials.The return tickets will be available from July 4 at Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat stations.The July 8 tickets will be available on July 4 while July 9 tickets on July 5, July 10 and 11 tickets on July 7 and July 12 tickets on July 8.One person will be allowed to buy maximum four tickets and ticket once sold will not be taken back.The Railways Minister said, a pair of special trains will run the Dhaka-Dewanganj-Dhaka route from July 3 for three days before the Eid and from July 8 for seven days after the Eid. Besides, two pairs of special trains will run on the Chittagong-Chandpur-Chittagong route.The minister said a pair of special trains will run on the Parbatipur-Dhaka-Parbatipur route from July 3 to 5 and from July 8 to 14. Besides, a special pair of train will run on Khulna-Dhaka-Khulna route from July 3 to 5 and July 8 to 14.The minister said two pairs of Solakia special train will run on the Bhoirab-Kishoreganj-Bhoirab and the Mymensingh-Kishoreganj-Mymensingh routes on the day of Eid-ul-Fitr.From July 1 to the day before Eid, all intercity trains will run, even on rest days.The advance booking and sales of bus tickets for long-distance journeys for the Eid holidays had already began and will continue until June 30.Long queues of passengers were seen on ticket counters at Gabtoli, Kallyanpur, Malibag, Fakirapul and Shyamoli since early morning. Though some counters at Mohakhali bus terminal started selling tickets while others said the decision to sell advance tickets had not been taken as yet. Mohakhali Bus Terminal Transport Owners’ Association said the official decision would be taken soon.A huge crowd gathered near the bus counters for tickets, especially for July 4 tickets, as the Eid holidays begin from that day. “I came to get a ticket for Bagerhat on July 4, but I was told that the tickets had already been sold out, even though the sale of tickets began only two hours ago. Now, I have to look for tickets on other counters,” said a city resident named Ahmed Ullah, standing in front of a bus counter ay Kallyanpur. Online tickets are also available on busbd.com, sohojbd.com and tickets.com. A passenger, however, cannot buy more than four tickets, according to the directive of the Bus-Truck Owners’ Association. The association’s Managing Director Ramesh Chandra Ghosh said tickets were being sold in accordance with the fares set by the government. Fare lists are being displayed on the counters.The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) will start selling tickets in advance for state-owned buses from June 26. During Eid, as many as 400 BRTC buses will run from Dhaka to different routes across the country.However, launch operators have not yet announced the date for advance booking of tickets.
