Eid ticket hope draws huge crowds to Dhaka's Kamalapur Railway Station

The railways have thrown open counters for sale of advance tickets for Eid-ul-Azha holidaymakers at all major stations throughout Bangladesh.

The exercise is drawing huge crowds of ticket hopefuls at the ticket counters.
 
Sale started at 8am on Monday at 23 counters of the Kamalapur Railway Station. The sale was scheduled to end at 4pm.
 
Besides Kamalapur and Airport railway stations in Dhaka, all major stations in Chittagong, Sylhet, Khulna, Jessore, Ishwardi, Rajshahi, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat started selling tickets for Sep 7 in the morning.
 
Railway officials said that a total of 69 trains will operate each day from Sep 8 to 11 before Eid while advance tickets for 23,500 seats in 31 trains have been put up on sale.
 
Not in the least mood to miss the ticket home, many people made a beeline at Kamalapur Railway Station as early as Sunday night.
 
The turnout Eid home-hoppers continued in equal measure on Monday at the station, all eager to avail themselves to get tickets.
 

Eid-ul-Azha in Bangladesh may be celebrated on Sep 12 or 13, depending on moon sighting.

Advance tickets for Sep 8, 9, 10 and 11 will be sold on Aug 30, 31, Sep 1 and 2, respectively. The sale will begin from 8am every day.

Advance return tickets for Sep 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 will be available on Sep 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, respectively.

On Monday, tickets for trains bound for northern districts were found high on demand, particularly for Rangpur Express.

Arif Hossain, a holidaymaker could not get the ticket for Shantahar after spending hours in queue since 4:30am.

“There’s no ticket for Shantahar, so I had to purchase a ticket to Chatmohor,” he said.

A worker at the ticket counter told that enough tickets for Rangpur were still available however tickets for stations located on way to Rangpur were sold out.

Moderate crowd was spotted at Counter No. 7 for Chittagong-bound trains – Suborno Express, Mohanagar Probhati and Sonar Bangla Express, but no crowd was seen at Counter No. 8 for Chottola Express and Upakul Express.

Counters 9, 11 and 12, selling tickets to Sylhet, Kishoreganj and Netrokona saw a light crowd.

Al-Amin, one of the sellers at these counters, said: “There is hardly any customer. We still have an abundance of unsold tickets.”

Around 9am, during a visit to the Kamalapur Railway Station, Bangladesh Railways Director General Md Amzad Hossain said that around 9,000 tickets were sold out by then.

He highlighted that the passenger carrying capacity would increase this time as new coaches have been added to some trains.

“Bogies have been attached to some trains before Eid which is likely to raise their capacity by around 30 percent,” the DG said claiming of zero irregularity in sale of Eid tickets this year.

“We have taken preventive measures to stop sale of black tickets. We have kept close watch of the zone, so there is no scope ticket sale in black,” said Hossain.

All inter-city trains, except Upakul Express, Bijoy Express and Sundarban Express, will be operating on their weekly day-offs from Sep 7 until the day before the Eid.

Three pairs of special trains are scheduled to operate on Sep 9, 10 and 11 and on the seven days next to Eid, from Sep 14 to 20.

Leaves of important railway officers have been cancelled. They will work at a control room set up at the Rail Bhaban in the capital.