Long waits at Dhaka, Ctg stations pay off

Like previous years, long queues formed in front of the ticket counters at Kamalapur Railway Station yesterday, the first day of advance sales ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr, and people spent hours thinking whether they could get tickets at all. But this time, people even at the tail end returned elated. Their long waits paid off.

"Now all the pain I faced in the last six hours waiting seems very little because I've confirmed I'm going to celebrate Eid with my parents," said Redwan Ahmad, a university student, who bought a ticket for Rangpur. He joined the queue at the sehri time.

This correspondent talked to at least three people at the tail end who finally bought tickets, and he himself stood in the line and found that tickets for some routes were available till 3:30pm.

This group of ticket seekers, hoping to be the first in line, arrived as early as 1:30am and resorted to a game of cards to pass their time. Photo: Star

Sales open at 8:00am and close at 5:00pm.

The same situation was observed at Chittagong Railway Station, reported a staff correspondent from there.

Shirina Akter, a housewife in the port city, had stood in the line at the sehri time. "I bought three tickets of Mohanagar Probhati for going to my village home in Laksam [in Comilla]," she said, smiling.

After five hours of wait, Rafique Sobhani and his friend bought eight tickets -- four each because it is the maximum limit for each person.

"Except the wait there was no hassle in buying the tickets," Rafique said.

However, a railway official in Dhaka said the crowd was smaller on the first day but more people would scramble for tickets from today. There would be a huge demand for tickets for the travels on July 15-17, he said.

Around 40,000 tickets are sold daily in advance at Kamalapur Railway Station, said railway officials, adding that additional coaches and special trains would be added to cope with the Eid rush.

Like this woman at Chittagong Railway Station, people were elated on being able to get tickets after the long wait in queues. Photo: Star

As Eid is likely to be celebrated on July 18 or 19, there will be no sale on July 17.

Officials said every day 1.8 lakh people travel by train across the country and the additional measures would increase the capacity to 2.5 lakh.

At Chittagong Railway Station, 4,171 tickets will be sold daily.

The return tickets to Dhaka and Chittagong will be sold in advance at Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat stations.