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Advance bus-rail ticket for Eid now most sought-after item

Helemul Alam
With Eid-ul-Fitr drawing nearer, city dwellers have started thronging ticket counters at railway stations and bus and launch terminals to collect advance tickets to visit their village homes during the biggest religious festival
The railway authorities started selling advance tickets yesterday, but a small number of people collected tickets as only the tickets for September 14 were available.
Many others came to know when the tickets for other days, especially September 17, 18,19 and 20, will be available.
'We have sold 916 tickets, out of 12,151, for September 14 and will continue to sell these tickets until September 14," said MA Zinnah, station manager of the Kamalapur Railway Station.
The tickets for September 15 will be available on September 8, tickets for September 16on Septembers, tickets for September 17 on September 10, tickets for September 18 on September 11, tickets for September 19 on September 12 and tickets for September 20 on September 13.
Md Ahsan Habib, a resident of Mugda, came to the railway station to know about the advance tickets of Lamonirhat Express but went back disappointed, as only 14 tickets to Bogra for September 20 will be available.
There are only 440 seats in Lalmonirhat Express and only 14 seats are reserved for Bogra-bound passengers, he said.
Station Master of Kamalapur Railway Station Samsul Haque said there will be high demand for tickets for September 17, 18. 19 and 20. So. most people will collect
their tickets on September 10, 11,12 and September 13.
In those days, 24 inter-city trains will depart from Kamalapur Railway Station and four inter-city trains from Airport Railway Station.
Besides, eight to ten express, mail and local trains will also run on different routes.
"We will operate four special trains on four routes for three days from September 18 for the convenience of the home-bound people during Eid-ul-Fitr," said Samsul
Haque.
The routes are Dhaka-Rajshahi , Dhaka-Mymensingh, Joydevpur-Shantahar and Dhaka-Dewanganj. Extra three or five compartments will also be added to each train to ease the pressure of passengers, he added.
He also said there will be no scope of selling tickets in black market as Rapid Action Battalion (Rab), the police and railway officials will monitor the situation to check it.
Home-bound passengers
have also started collecting advance tickets of buses.
Although big bus services have already sold advance tickets, many bus services having bus counters at bus terminals have not yet started selling advance tickets.
SR Paribahan, a bus service for northern districts, have already sold advance tickets for September 18, 19 and 20. Many passengers who came to buy tickets returned empty-handed yesterday.
Shahrukh of Greenland Service said they would start selling advance tickets on September 15.
"We will fix the fare as per the decision to be taken by bus owners' association," he said.
Sayeed of Shoukhin Paribahan operating on Dhaka-Khulna-Satkhira-Jhenaidah route said they have not yet started selling advance tickets.
Launch operators have started selling advance tickets a few days ago, but passengers complained that they have to buy tickets at a rate higher than the usual fares.
RataA of Dipfaj-2, a launch service operating on Dhaka-Bogra-Patuakhali route, said they have been selling advance tickets for the last few days.
He said they are taking Tk 800 for single cabin and Tk 1500 for double cabin and the rate is not higher than the government-fixed rate.
However, the fares are Tk 500 and Tk 900 respectively during normal time.
Badiuzzaman Badal, acting president of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Owners Association, said the launch operators will not raise the fares. They will charge the fares as per the rate fixed by the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).