Joynal Abedin Khan :Thousands of home-bound passengers, including women, are scrambling for advance tickets of Inter-city train of different routes to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with their near and dear ones.They have been standing in long queues at Kamalapur Railway Station since Thursday afternoon to get tickets defying all types of sufferings. At on stage, waves of human sea created new history of gathering on Friday for advance bus and train tickets.Many of the train commuters returned empty handed in the afternoon, as the demand for tickets was more than the seat capacities.Many train commuters who failed to get tickets alleged that the Bangladesh Railway (BR) authorities had reserved large numbers of seats for “special people,” depriving them of their due shares.They also claimed that BR authorities had reserved 45 per cent tickets for VIPs, railway staff and selected people.BR has refused to sell air conditioned tickets of different inter-city trains to the members of the public, as those have been ‘reserved’ for influential men, they further claimed.”Around 45 percent of tickets were reserved for VIPs and railway staff and the remaining 55 percent were reserved for general commuters,” said some officials of BR on condition of anonymity.They alleged that many tickets reserved for VIPs found their way to black markets, depriving the railway of revenue.The railway authorities sell some 50,000 advance tickets per day, with 25 percent earmarked for online and mobile sales, five percent for VIPs and another five percent for staff, Kamalapur Raiway Station Manager Shitangshu Chakravarty told the New Nation on Friday.BR has a capacity to carry 50,000 outbound passengers, which is increased to 70,000 during the Eid season, the station master said. The crisis for tickets would further intensify in the next three days, as the demand is on the rise, he said.The railway authorities started selling advance tickets from Sept 15, which would end today (Saturday), the railway official said. On the other hand, many people are buying tickets from black market at exorbitant priceThe passengers claimed that the number of ticket counters is insufficient comparing with the demand of the ticket seekers. People failing to collect tickets sometimes travel by trains without tickets during the Eid. A number of ticket seekers claimed that the railway authorities should distribute the tickets from 5:00am instead of 9:00am during the Eid period. Passengers also claimed that huge numbers of tickets were sold in the black markets on the fourth consecutitive day (Friday). Laila Afroz, who secured tickets to go to Rangpur, said that she came around 6:00am and it took for her around four hours to get three tickets.”It would have been better if there were two counters for women. It is hard for women to stand in queue for three to five hours and collect tickets,” said ‘Sharmin Akhter’ who came to buy a ticket for Nilphamari.Nazmul Bashar, wants to go to Dinajpur. He said when asked that he was waiting in line from 3:10am for a ticket. “This is not proper management. Steps should be taken to ensure that tickets can be bought easily.”Mostadul, an official of Bangladesh Bank who lives at Fakirapool, came to the railway station at 3:00am to get the tickets of Drutojan Express for Dinajpur, but failed to get the tickets till 12:30pm.”Advance ticket sales ahead of Eid-ul-Azha started at Dhaka and Chittagong railway stations on Tuesday morning. Tickets will be available online and on the ticket counters until September 19. Each passenger is allowed to buy maximum four non-refundable tickets,” said Mujibul Haque, Railway Minister. He said that 169 additional bogies will be added to the existing fleet to carry the increased number of the home-goers during the Eid festival. The minister said that law enforcers and mobile court had been deployed to check black marketing of tickets.BR will operate 14 special trains, of which four will run to and from Solakia, Kishoreganj. The remaining trains will run for three days before Eid and three days after Eid. The roads and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader said that the quota would be cancel for next term to decrease the passengers’ suffering. He said that the government would take proper action against irregularities to mke Eid journey safe. Meanwhile, Police and Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested at least 20 ‘black-marketeers’ from Kamalapur Railway Station during sales of advance tickets in last four days, said Abdul Majid, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Kamalapur Government Railway Police (GRP).
