Railway starts selling advance tickets for Eid
People wait around for hours at Kamalapur Railway Station to buy advance train tickets ahead of Eid. The photo was taken yesterday at about 4:00am. Photo: Rashed Shumon
Railway authorities began selling advance train tickets at Kamalapur Railway Station from yesterday to ease sufferings of the homebound people before the Eid-ul-Fitr.
Tickets are being sold from 9:00am to 4:00pm. Advance tickets for September 5 trains were being sold yesterday.
According to train timetable, tickets for Sep 6 trains will be sold on Sep 1, Sep 7 trains on Sep 2, Sep 8 trains on Sep 3 and Sep 9 trains on Sep 4.
City dwellers gathered around the ticket counters of the station to collect advance tickets.
They queued at the counters to buy tickets for Rajshahi, Khulna, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat bound trains since early morning.
As the day went on, more people joined the queues.
The crowd was comparatively thinner in front of the counters of Chittagong, Noakhali and Sylhet bound trains.
Law enforcers remained constantly vigilant to ensure safety of the ticket seekers and avert ticket sale on the black market.
Railway authorities hope that the sufferings of homebound people this year would be less because of the availability of advance tickets and option to book tickets through mobile phones.
Crowds of ticket seekers queuing up before the counters, however, seemed indifferent to the availability of train tickets through mobile phones.
But a railway source said lots of tickets have already been booked through mobile phones.
A total of 16 intercity trains will operate on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr. Two additional trains will run on Dhaka-Dewanganj and Parbatipur-Dhaka routes from September 7 to 10 to cope with the demand.
The railway will be able to accommodate a total of 13 thousand passengers everyday.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway east zone also started selling advance tickets of intercity trains from yesterday amid tight security to facilitate the journey of homebound people ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.
The authorities will introduce three special trains including two on Chittagong-Chandpur route and one on Chittagong-Comilla route from Tuesday next.
The advance tickets for September 5 trains were sold yesterday.
Thus train tickets for September 6, 7, 8 and 9 will be available on September 1, 2, 3 and 4, said sources of Bangladesh Railway in Chittagong.
Tickets for everyday trains are also available during the sale of advance tickets. One passenger is allowed to buy a maximum of four tickets, said the sources.
Station Manager Shamsul Alam said they would monitor the situation through 16 CCTVs to prevent ticket sale on the black market.
“We have put on display the total number of 4587 seats that the six intercity and one Chandpur bound express trains have at the station to help the passengers," Shamsul said.
The railway authorities will add two to four compartments to these trains to accommodate more passengers, said Station Master Md Abul Kalam Azad.
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