Celebration of Eid
Shortage of bus, trains makes journey miserable
Homebound People wait in long queues since dawn for tickets at Chittagong Railway Station on Sunday. Photo: STAR
Due to shortage of long distance buses and trains, the homebound people eager to celebrate Eid-ul Azha with their kith and kin are facing troubles in Chittagong like previous years. It has become a common scenario ahead of two big religious festivals of Muslim community every year while the authorities concerned including Bangladesh Railway, private bus services and the law enforcement agencies remain indifferent to such public sufferings. Many passengers are opting for trains due to dilapidated condition of Chittagong-Dhaka highway and huge gridlock this year. Ahead of Eid-ul-Azha both the private bus services and Bangladesh Railway started selling tickets in advance from the middle of this month, creating ticket crisis from the very beginning. The private services like Hanif Enterprise, Shyamoli Paribahan, Keya Paribahan and others started selling advance tickets for long distance buses, including northern and southern region on November 15. Huge number of people, who crowded the counters from the early morning on the first day to buy advance tickets, have been frustrated on that very day due to ticket crisis. Angry people went on the rampage at the counter of Hanif Enterprise at BRTC intersection on November 15 failing to get tickets within one and a half hour after the sale of tickets started. Hiru, a counterman, said most of the tickets for five days from November 23 to November 27 for several destinations in the northern region including Rajshahi, Panchagarh, Dinajpur, Chapainawabganj, Naogaon, Bogra and in the southern region were sold on the first day. He said they have only one or two services in a day for these destinations while the demand for tickets were much more. But the passengers and sources said the bus owners have kept most of the tickets unsold for selling those later at higher prices. Besides, the buses are charging hire prices for tickets taking advantage of rush. Hanif and Shyamoli are charging Tk 650 to Tk 700 against the normal price of Tk 500 to Tk 550 per ticket for Rajshahi, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Chapainawabganj, Bogra, Gaibandha, Pabna, Kushtia, Meherpur, Chuadanga, and Naogaon from Chittagong. Anik, a counterman of Shyamoli, said they are charging higher prices as the buses would return with poor number of passengers. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway on November 18 started selling advance tickets for five days from November 23 to November 27. While visiting the railway station on Sunday afternoon, the last day of the sale of advance tickets, huge people were found returning home without tickets after standing in long queue since early morning. Omar Faruq, a service holder, said he could not visit his home at Natore during Eid-ul-Fitre and would not be able to celebrate Eid this time also as he could neither collect tickets for bus nor train. Many people were also seen crowding the railway station on Monday afternoon for tickets. Station Manager MA Gani said they have no tickets for any of the trains from November 25 to November 27 except for the Dhaka-bound inter-city train Turna Nishitha. He said over 5000 passenger can travel to Dhaka, Sylhet, Chandpur and Comilla by six inter-city trains daily. Under the situation, Bangladesh Railway east zone is going to launch three special trains, two on Chittagong-Chandpur and one on Chittagong-Comilla routes. Station Manager Gani said they would try to add additional compartments to the inter-city trains if compartments are available. He, however, could not give any assurance in this regard.
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