Night-long wait for tickets

Sale of pre-Eid advance railway tickets has commenced from Sunday. But hundreds of ticket expectants started camping at the capital’s Kamalpur Railway Station, literally spending sleepless night, to get a ticket to their destination since Saturday night.

Many of those who have queued up for the ticket, stated that they took position, spreading mats in front of the ticket counter, from previous night.

The sale of advance tickets commenced at 9 am on Sunday.

Anwar Parbez of Khulna said that from Saturday evening he had posted himself in the station with the hope of getting an early ticket.

Public were facing undue harassment since the tickets were handed out in a very slow space, he told the bdnews24.com.

Many had expressed doubt about getting a ticket even after standing on the queue for hours.

Navid Rahman of Chittagong said, “If I don’t get a ticket today (Sunday), I will have to come again tomorrow (Monday).”
Railway authorities have claimed that eighteen thousand pre-Eid tickets will be released daily from Dhaka alone. Tickets ofJuly 24 were sold on Sunday.

Similarly tickets of July 25, 26, 27 and 28 will be sold on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday respectively.

Advance tickets will be given from July 20 to 24 from 9am to 5pm. One person will not be given more than four tickets.

Like in the past, this year too 5 percent of the tickets have been kept aside for railway employees, officials and VIPs.

According to rail authorities, 166 extra bogies and additional locomotives would be added to the trains leaving for various destinations during this festive season.

The railway ministry has already cancelled the Eid holidays of its employees to ensure hassle free rail journey for the passengers.

‘Sale until stocks last’

Immediately after the commencement of advance train ticket sale, the Railway Minister Mohammad Mujibul Haque visited the Kamalpur Railway Station to take stock of the proceeding.

During that time he interacted with those standing on the queue and gave a patient hearing to their complaints.  

Later speaking to journalists he said, “Passengers have sought for extension of time for ticket sale. Those involved in the selling of tickets have been instructed to continue the sale until the stocks last.”

In view of the Eid, sixty thousand advance tickets would be sold daily across the country, the minister said.

On the allegation of tickets being sold at a slow pace, the minister said, “The machines used for disbursement of tickets are working slowly. Next year speedy machines will be installed. Hopefully, after that there will be no problem.”   

Many had also brought to the notice of the minister that tickets could not be procured online due to some problem on the website.

In response to this, the minister assured that taking a cue from first day’s experience, those problems would be sorted out.