Advance sale of bus tickets for Eid-ul-Fitr began in the capital Friday with buyers complaining about price hike and long wait in queues due to the sellers delaying the process.
A huge number of tickets for July 14 were sold at different bus counters, ticket sellers and buyers told the Dhaka Tribune.
The first day of ticket-selling went slow at some bus services such as Hanif Enterprise, Nabil Paribahan, National Travels and Shyamoli Paribahan, as well as Mohakhali and a few other bus terminals. Sellers said they waited for customers for hours, but only a handful showed up.
However, the picture was quite different at Gabtoli and Kalyanpur bus terminals, where a large number of people gathered to collect tickets.
“The ticket prices are being sold at the same prices as last year; we are not charging extra,” said Helaluddin, seller at the ticket counter of Shyamoli Paribahan in Mohakhali. But Jalil Miah, ticket seller at the counter of Hanif Paribahan in Gabtoli, said the prices were raised to cover the expenses as the buses would return to Dhaka with very few passengers.
Customers alleged that they had to pay around Tk120-250 more than the usual prices for the tickets.
One such buyer, Jaber, said: “I bought a Shyamoli Paribahan ticket to go to Dinajpur on July 14. It usually costs Tk500, but today I had to pay Tk600 for the ticket.”
Saikat, another customer who bought a ticket for Thakurgaon said he had to pay Tk850 for a Tk600 ticket.
Several buyers said tickets for July 14-16 and July 17 morning were already sold out, when this report was filed.
Faisal Al Ahad, student at Dhaka University, said: “I had gone to buy a ticket for my uncle, but could not get any. All the tickets for the South-bound buses seem to have been sold out.”
But the ticker sellers said tickets for those days were available at their counters. “He [Faisal] must have made a mistake.”
Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Md Salahuddin, spokesperson for the Bus-Truck Owners' Association, said the holiday rush for the coming Eid was likely to reach its peak on July 14. “This is why we have started selling tickets now.”
Train tickets, as announced by Railways Minister Mazibul Hoque, will be available from July 9, to be sold daily from 9am to 5pm. The return tickets will be available from July 16.
Bangladesh Inland Waterways Transport Authority has yet to decide on a date to start selling launch tickets.
Mahbub Uddin Ahmed, president of the organisation, said the date would be set at a meeting in a few days.