Eid Ticket: Bus operators charging high
Dilruba Yeasmin was scared the moment she arrived at Hanif Paribahan's bus counter in Gabtoli Balurmath area around 9:00am yesterday.
There had already been long queues before all ticket counters with no separate line for women.
Upset, she first queued up with men amid the heat and eventually made a separate line with a few other female ticket seekers. After waiting for more than three hours, her turn came.
“I was very disturbed as there was no separate line for women and that I had to stand for such a long time. But all my pain disappeared as soon as I got my ticket. The thought of celebrating Eid with the family members is something very special,” said Dilruba who lives in Khilgaon.
Like Dilruba, hundreds of people thronged the bus counters and Kamalapur Railway Station as sale of advance tickets for the forthcoming Eid-ul-Azha began yesterday. Many of them came to the counters in the very early morning.
Many passengers complained that they had to pay extra Tk 50 to Tk 250 per ticket. They alleged that some transport companies reserved the tickets of August 31 for the time when the rush would intensify.
Russell Biswas, an employee of a private company, said he had to buy a ticket for Magura at Tk 615 although regular price is Tk 400.
Mohammad Israfil, a counter master of Sohag Paribahan, said the price of tickets was set by the bus owners' association.
About the allegation of overcharging, bus owners said throughout the year, they charge passengers less than the rates fixed by the BRTA as they earn both from up and down trips. But during the Eid season, they sell tickets at the fixed rate since they have no income from return trips.
Most of the people who went to bus or train stations got tickets, but some did not get tickets for their desired dates.
Illias Hossain, a resident of Dhamrai who came to buy tickets for Kurigram, said, “I have stood in the queue at 7:00am. It is now 12:15noon and I have yet to get my ticket. I do not know if I will get it as many ahead of me returned empty-handed.”
Several bus operators at Gabtoli Bus Terminal said they sold fewer tickets, especially on southwestern routes, compared to previous the Eid due to bad condition of roads and ferry services.
“In the Eid-ul-Fitr, we sold tickets worth around Tk 1.5 lakh in the first six hours of advance ticket sale, but it has been reduced to Tk 50,000 this time,” said Mohammad Dulal, a counter master of Hanif Paribahan.
Explaining the reasons, he said the buses could not maintain timing as many roads are severely damaged and ferry services were hampered due to bad weather and water level rise in the rivers.
Ramesh Chandra Ghosh, managing director of Shyamoli Paribahan, said they were concerned about the road condition and had already altered the passengers about it.
TRAIN TICKETS 'AVAILABLE'
Many ticket seekers began to gather in front of the closed ticket counters at Kamalapur Railway Station at night, while many arrived at the station in the morning.
The Bangladesh Railway yesterday sold advance tickets for August 27. Tickets for August 28, 29, 30, 31 and September 1 would be sold on August 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 respectively.
Kamruzzaman Babu, a contractor, came to the station around 8:00am from Munshiganj to buy tickets and got two for Bogra at 11:10am.
“It was not as tough as I thought,” he said with a sigh of relief.
Queues for the tickets for Rajshahi, Dinajpur and Khulna were seen longer than those for Chittagong and Sylhet.
“I will go to Bogra, but road condition is very bad. So, I came here to buy train tickets,” Sabuj Hossain Suman, a private service holder, said.
As many as 22,496 advance tickets for 31 trains were available yesterday, said Station Manager Sitangshu Chakrabarty.
Sixty-five percent of the tickets were sold at Kamalapur and 25 percent were sold online. Five percent were reserved for VIPs and another five percent for railway employees, he added.
Besides, 30,570 tickets of mail, express and local trains were being sold on a daily basis, Sitangshu said.
“There was crowd in the morning. However, everybody got tickets and ticket is available for all routes,” he said at 2:00pm.
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