Frustration is running high among thousands of homebound people, as the highly-sought Eid advance train tickets were sold out within three hours after sales began in Sylhet.
The rail routes to Syhlet gets the third largest volume of passengers during the Eid rush, trailing only Dhaka and Chittagong. The ten days advance package for homebound passengers, which started on July 26, ended on Tuesday.
Sources suggest that some passengers failed to avail tickets even after waiting in the rail station queue from dawn to afternoon. Tickets were also unavailable in online and MobiCash. Passengers alleged to Banglanews that tickets were put up for black market sale. They also requested for a special train to Sylhet. Tuesday was the scheduled date to get tickets for August 8. Only some of those waiting in the queue were rewarded with tickets, while most had to return home empty handed. Sources at Bangladesh Railway informed that ticket booths will not be offering seat tickets between the dates of August 4 to August 8. But tickets for August 9 will be available after the evening of August 8, if the moon of Shawwal month is not seen. Moreover, standing tickets will be sold daily from counter. Some passengers alleged that the black market salesmen were opting to use MobiCash, as loudspeakers made public announcements on the platform to raise awareness among the passengers. Exploiting the option of purchasing four tickets from a single mobile sim, the unscrupulous black marketeers have been using ten to fifteen sim cards to purchase tickets, which they will look to sell later, based on the demand of tickets in the market. A syndicate allegedly maintains direct connection with the rail employees to get tickets, while in some cases, another syndicate stands in the queue from night to get tickets of different routes. Afterwards, they sell it for high prices. As most of the passengers do not have master card and visa debit cards, they cannot buy tickets through the e-service. Complaints against the e-service also include of a faulty network service for most of the card holders. Station master of Sylhet Muhibur Rahman said, we cannot provide tickets according to the demand of the passengers. The rail officials are also not getting tickets by standing in queue. Apart from providing us any special train, the suffering of the passengers could be alleviated a bit if at least two compartments can be added to every train, he suggested.