Hundreds of city dwellers, who gathered at the capital’s Kamalapur Railway Station on Friday and yesterday to buy advance tickets to leave Dhaka ahead of Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja, expressed their frustration over the railway authority’s mismanagement, quota system, slow delivery and illegal activities of ticket scalpers.
Meanwhile, all bus tickets in the capital for the first three days of October have been sold out in just two days after the advance ticket sales began on September 15.
Although the advance train ticket sales began two days ago, most ticket seekers returned home empty handed as special quotas for ticket sales had choked the number of tickets available for open sale.
Ticket seekers alleged that the railway authorities had reserved 10% of the tickets for VIPs and railway officials, 25% seats for e-ticketing (purchase through mobile phones) and almost 6% seats for regular quota.
As per the seat distribution list at the railway station, the authorities will sell a total of 14,010 tickets per day where 2,756 seats will be for e-ticketing, 701 for VIPs, 701 for officials, 872 for regular quota and rest 8,980 for open sale.
Shamim, a ticket seeker, told the Dhaka Tribune: “I have come to the station early morning to buy four ticket for Nowgaon. But as the counter staff have been very slow in delivering service, I am not sure if I will be able to buy tickets at the end of the day.”
A rail police official, seeking anonymity, said a section of ticket counter staff were involved with the ticket scalpers and were thus providing tickets very slowly.
“Soon, the rush of ticket seekers will go down and then these countermen will sell off the day’s remaining tickets to scalpers,” he added.
At a time when the railway authorities claimed that security had been tightened at rail stations using the Railway Police, Dhaka Metropolitan Police, Rapid Action Battalion, Border Guard Bangladesh and the Army, this correspondent yesterday found that ticket scalpers and brokers were actively carrying out their illegal activity at Kamlapur Railway Station.
Many of the scalpers were seen trying to squeeze into queues of ticket seekers at the ticket counters using various tricks.
Several ticket scalpers were seen trying to break into the front part of the queues claiming that they were present in the queue and went to have breakfast a few minutes ago. When actual ticket seekers challenged their claims, they shifted to another line and continued to try the same trick over again.
When contacted, Kamlapur Railway Station Manager Shakhawat Hossain Khan denied the allegations and claimed: “The tickets are being sold smoothly and no report of an irregularity has been filed.”
When visit the Kamlapur Railway Station yesterday, Bangladesh Railway Director General M Tofazzal Hossain told journalists: “Few problem might occur about cabins and AC coach seats as its numbers were limited.”
“However, the numbers of seats are not expected to be sold out in such a short period (9am to 11am), we will look into the matter,” he added.
Extra fare charging bus operators
On the road, almost all private bus services operating on all the routes from the capital have already sold out advance tickets for the first three days of October, mounting pressure on home-bound people who have not yet been able to secure their tickets.
During a visit to Gabtoli, Kallyanpur, Mohakhali and Sayedabad bus terminal, it was found that people were queuing in front of the counters and requesting the officials to manage tickets for them, even if the prices were higher than usual, however, the counter officials could not meet their demands as no tickets are now available from October 1 to October 3.
The holiday makers now have no options to travel out of Dhaka and visit their home towns but to travel before or after October 1 or after October 3.
“I am trying to manage tickets for Rangpur for October 2 and visited all the counters, but no tickets were available,” Aminul Karim, a ticket-seekers at Kallyanpur bus counter, yesterday.
He further added that he had also offered extra money for tickets to counter officials, however, his attempts were in vain.
Meanwhile, some passengers also alleged that the bus operators are saving the tickets now so that they can sell them just a day or two before the festivals and make more money.
“The counterman refused me tickets for October 2, but when I was in the counter, a counter staff was talking to someone over phone and booked two tickets for him for the same day,” said Barun Kumer Roy at the Hanif bus counter in Gabtoli.
“What can we do? We have to run business and for this we have to keep many requests from the influential. We do keep tickets for them to keep them happy,” an official at the Hanif counter, wishing anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune.
When asked about charging more for tickets, he also claimed: “We charge exactly what is fixed by the BRTA fare chart.”
He also claimed that normally they charge lower fares than the BRTA chart to attract more passengers, added: “Not only us, but all bus operators have been charging the same as per the BRTA chart.
BRTA has set a fare rate of Tk1.45 per kilometre on every highway, including ferry fare rates and bridge tolls. Every bus operator has put the chart, signed by a BRTA official, on display in front of their counters.
Although the private bus operators had started advanced sale of Eid tickets last week, the state-owned bus service of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) would start selling their advance tickets from today, officials said.
Launch fares high than Eid-ul Fitr
Launch ticket seekers have claimed that the launch owners had not reduced the ticket prices like Eid-ul-Fitr as per a decision taken earlier during a meeting between BIWTA officials and launch owners’ associations’ leaders.
The government body allowed launch owners to keep their present ticket prices if they promise not to overload their vessels during the vacation period.
Sale of advance tickets for BIWTA vessels are scheduled to begin today.
