Many return without tickets on second day

The second day of advance sales at Kamalapur Railway Station disappointed many people, with tickets running out before the last person in the queue could reach the counter.

Scores of people who did not get tickets waited for hours, some since the sehri time.

"I came at 7:30 in the morning and saw many waiting in the queue. I stood at the end of the line. After more than five hours when my turn came, the counterman told me that tickets were sold out," said Mizanur Rahman, who was looking for tickets to Rangpur.

For Jahangir Alam, it was more of regret than disappointment. "I came here after sehri... If I had been ahead of a few more people in the queue, I would get the ticket."

Tickets were sold out before 2:00pm.

However, on Thursday, the first day of advance sales, almost all who lined up got tickets.

The railway authorities started the advance sales to ensure hassle-free trips of people ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, which will be celebrated on July 18 or 19.

With the demand for tickets increasing sharply, those who bought ones looked overwhelmingly cheerful.

"I had been waiting since 3:00am. I took sehri here. Now I got the ticket; I'm very happy that I will be celebrating Eid with my family," said Robayet, a college student in Dhaka.

However, many ticket-seekers complained of "slow" distribution of tickets. If it was faster, people would suffer less, they said.

Talking to reporters, Dhaka Divisional Railway Manager Arifuzzaman said people might raise many allegations but the officials were working sincerely and tickets were sold as long as they were available.

Tickets of July 15 to 17 will be sold today to July 13 correspondingly at Kamalapur Railway Station in Dhaka and Chittagong Railway Station.

Similarly, the return tickets of July 20 and 21 will be sold on July 16 and 17, while tickets of July 22 and 23 will be sold on July 19 and tickets of July 24 will be sold on July 20 at Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat stations.

An individual can buy a maximum of four tickets.

BRTC BUS

The state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTC) also started selling advance bus tickets yesterday at the capital's five spots -- Motijheel, Gulistan, Kalyanpur, Mirpur, and Joarsahara.

BRTC Chairman Mizanur Rahman told The Daily Star that they had a plan to operate around 400 additional buses from the capital to outer districts starting three to four days ahead of Eid.

Normally 500 buses operate on inter-district routes, he said.