Huge rush for train tickets at Kamalapur station

Determined to reach their ancestral home and celebrate Eid with near and dear ones, thousands turned up at Dhaka's Kamalapur Railway Station on Friday for advanced railway tickets for Jul 3.

Some even stayed in queue for 18 hours to get the advance ticket.
 
This correspondent found tickets for northern and southern districts were most in demand.
 

Golam Mustafa Alamgir stood in queue for a ticket to Rajshahi at 3pm on Thursday.

"After 18 hours in queue, I finally got the ticket at 9am this morning," he told

bdnews24.com on Friday.

To battle boredom during these long hours, Alamgir chatted up others in queue and played cards with them.

Government Titumir College student Zahirul Islam was angry after he failed to get an AC coach ticket to Rajshahi after a wait of nine hours.

"I have been in queue for so long. They started selling tickets at 8am this morning. Now they say there is no more ticket to offer, it is all finished."

School teacher Abdul Karim has been in queue since 4am Friday for a ticket to Pabna's Chatmohor.

"My token number is 64. I don’t know whether I will get a ticket."

Housewife Shamima Jesmin is in queue since 4am as well for a ticket to Jamalpur.

"If I get a ticket, the long wait will be worth it."

The counters for northern and southern districts were packed with people, but that was not the case in other counters.

Didarul Alam, looking for a ticket on 'Egarosindhur Express' to Kishoreganj, was hopeful. "I think I will get a ticket. In my counter, there is not much of a rush."

GRP police OC Abdul Majid said there was not much complaint about black marketing of tickets.

"But we have nabbed 8 to 10 people on suspicion that they were involved in black marketing."

Due to huge traffic congestion on roads, most Eid time travellers prefer the railways.

Kamalapur Station Master Sitangshu Chakrabarty said 18,000 tickets on 33 trains were being sold every day during this Eid season.

Eighty-four additional compartments will be added to various trains. Three pairs of extra trains will ply on Dhaka-Khulna, Dhaka-Parbatipur and Dhaka-Dewanganj routes, he said.

Three additional counters have been opened at Kamalapur, taking the total number to 23. There are separate counters for women, children and disabled.

Chakrabarty said 65 percent of the ticket were up for open sale while 25 percent were offered for sale through mobile phones and online booking.

Five percent of the seats were reserved for VIPs and another 5 percent for railway officials and employees.