bdnews24.com :Advanced booking of bus tickets has begun ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha amidst familiar allegations of mismanagement and the charging of extra fare.Long queues have been seen in Dhaka’s Gabtoli Bus Terminal, where the rush for tickets is the maximum every year. The sale of tickets have simultaneously begun at the bus counters at Gabtoli, Kalyanpur, Shyamoli and the Mirpur Mazar Road on Friday morning.The advance tickets at Sayedabad and Mohakhali bus terminals would be available from Saturday, while state-run BRTC would commence sale from Sep 16. Some people alleged that higher than normal prices were being charged, while others complained that tickets were not available online, a facility several bus companies had promised passengers.Many, however, were seen returning home happy after getting the tickets they sought after waiting in a long queue. bdnews24.com’s photojournalist Asaduzzaman Pramanik said passengers standing in the long lines alleged that most bus counters opened between 7:30am and 8am, though ticket sale was supposed to begin from 6am.Rasel Ahmed of Rangpur had been waiting for tickets at Kalyanpur since 6am. “It’s been over three hours. I don’t know whether I will get tickets,” he said. He alleged some people had ‘managed’ to lay their hands on tickets even without bothering to queue up.Readymade garment workers ‘Alamgir’ and ‘Rakib’, who were at the same place since 6am, got their tickets around noon. Alamgir said Tk 600 was charged for one ticket to Rangpur which otherwise would cost Tk 500. The counter manager of TR Travels at Kalyanpur, Shahedur Rahman, said they were struggling to meet the demand.He admitted that people were suffering because of the long queues. “But we are trying our best to minimise their suffering.” Based on moon sighting, Eid-ul-Azha may fall on Sep 25.Shahedur said holidaymakers were mostly asking for tickets for Sep 23 and 24. A visit to Gabtoli Bus Terminal showed there were separate queues for men and women at most of the counters.Despite the presence of a policeman at each counter, many were seen breaking the line and trying to buy tickets out of turn, thus causing chaos.Sohel Rana, who was waiting to buy tickets to Panchagarh, said, “I can’t say from the line what is happening inside the counter. Don’t know whether I will get the tickets.” Hanif Enterprise’s Sales Executive Iqbal Hossain earlier told bdnews24.com that they would sell tickets from 6am to 8pm every day. There were very long queues in front of every counter of this service at Gabtoli. Meanwhile, Naogaon’s Ashik Hossain said he was waiting to buy advance tickets at Kalyanpur since 5am after finding them unavailable online.
