Advance bus ticket sale begins
Braving rain, hundreds of people yesterday gathered at various bus counters and terminals in the capital to collect advance tickets for their journey home on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha.
Private bus operators began selling tickets around 6am at several locations in the city, including Gabtoli, Kalyanpur and Saidabad. Tickets for August 6 to 11 were being sold, which will continue until stock is left.
The first day of the advance ticket sale went smoothly, except for a few minor issues -- such as delay in ticket booking, some mismanagement in queues, and some passengers facing unavailability of desired tickets.
During a visit to Gabtoli around 9am, this correspondent found long queues of ticket seekers -- holding up umbrellas against the rain -- at several bus operators’ counters, including Hanif Paribahan and Shyamoli Paribahan.
Many of them arrived at the counters at midnight to form the queues, which gradually extended out of the premises. Despite standing for hours, most seemed content after getting their hands on tickets.
“It’s hard to express the difficulties and discomfort of standing in queue for hours in such weather. But I’m relieved now, as I got my desired ticket,” said Ariful Haque, a university student.
He went to the Hanif Paribahan counter at Balur Math in Gabtoli around 5am to buy a ticket for a Nilphamari-bound bus. His wait finally came to an end at 10:15am.
The ticket sellers told The Daily Star that demand of tickets for August 8, 9 and 10 was very high as Eid is expected to be celebrated on August 11 or 12. As a result, many holidaymakers had to change their journey schedule.
Imran Ali, a ticket seeker at the same counter, said after waiting for nearly four hours, he came to know that tickets to Gaibandha for August 10 were sold out.
“The counter masters (sellers) took a long time to book the tickets. Otherwise, I could have gotten one. Besides, I’m still not certain whether the tickets were indeed sold out or they kept those to sell at a higher price later on,” said a visibly frustrated Imran.
He later bought a ticket for August 9.
Talking to this reporter, Mosharref Hossain, general manager of Hanif Paribahan, said the allegation of the passenger was not true as the rush of holidaymakers will reach its peak on that day [August 10].
“No one left our counter empty-handed. Most people prefer night coaches. Perhaps, some had to change their schedule as we cannot offer everyone tickets to night coaches,” said Mosharref.
The turnout of ticket seekers was huge in the morning, which started to thin out later in the day. The situation was almost same at the bus counters in Kalyanpur.
Romesh Chandra Ghosh, chairman of Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association, said the ticket sale on the first day was good, despite the rain.
He said their association is monitoring whether any bus operator is charging extra fare.
Ahead of Eid, Bangladesh Railway will begin sale of advance train tickets from July 29 at several stations in the city.
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