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Launch Cabins for Eid Trips

Tickets vanish days before sale starts

Helemul Alam and Pankaj Karmakar
With the Eid a week away, cabin tickets of private launches disappeared a day before the owners formally started selling those yesterday.
The ticket seekers who went to Sadarghat Launch Terminal yesterday had to return empty-handed as tickets of all launches, except for a handful, had been sold out earlier.
And those available were being sold at double or even triple than what the government has set for the Eid rush days, when around 8 to 10 million people leave
Dhaka on launches.
Visiting the terminal on Thursday evening and yesterday morning, The Daily Star correspondents talked to officials and staff of over 20 launches in the guise of passengers, but failed to get a single cabin ticket at a fair price.
Several staff offered them one or two “extra cabins” which are designated as rest rooms for launch master and other staff. Meanwhile, they were also offered tickets at much higher prices.
Allegations are there that only those having connection with launch owners, managers and staff could get tickets yesterday, a claim which the authorities refuted outright.
A staff of Parabat-11 (Dhaka-Barisal) route asked Tk 2,000 for a single cabin and Tk 4,000 for a double one when the correspondents, posing as passengers, asked for tickets.
"All the cabins are booked. However, I can mange a staff cabin for you of August 15. But it will cost you Tk 2,000," a staff of Sundarban-8, plying Dhaka-Barisal route, said.
A staff of Surovi-8 launch (Dhaka-Barisal) suggested that finding a mediator to reach the launch owner or manager might work.
The government-set fare is Tk 820 for a single cabin and Tk 1,640 for double to travel to Barisal.
Usually around 50 to 60 launches ply everyday from Dhaka to different southern locations. The number shoots up at 70 to 80 a week ahead of Eid, and 115 to 120 in the last three days.
"We have the capacity of arranging for around 2,200 cabins per day. But the demand rises to 8,000 to 10,000 during the Eid festivals,” said Shahabuddin Milon, vice-president of Bangladesh Inland Waterways (Passenger Carriers) Association (BIWPCA), an organisation of the launch owners.
A large launch generally has 60-65 cabins while it is around 25 in small ones.
Another senior official of the BIWPCA said they would arrange for around 12 special launches just before the Eid when passengers would be able to buy cabin tickets on the spot.
There are six government-run steamers to ply towards southern districts, two of which are currently out of order.
Launch owners sell tickets of the cabins only, not of the deck. The deck tickets are sold just before the launch sets sail or while enroute. Thousands of passengers travel on
launch deck collecting tickets on first-come-first-served basis, said Milon.
TICKETS GONE?
Influential people like parliament members, political leaders, bureaucrats, police and army officials, who enjoy quota privileges, have secured most of the tickets of the cabins at least three weeks before Eid, said a number of launch owners.
Many passengers claimed that a syndicate of local political leaders and transport workers were involved with the cabin ticket business. They booked cabin and would sell those at much higher prices just two or three days ahead of Eid.
Denying the allegation, Badiuzzaman Badal, senior vice-president of BIWPCA, said 60 to 70 percent cabin tickets were sold over the phone before yesterday. But he claimed that rest of the tickets were sold to the passengers in due process yesterday.
About taking action for charging extra money by some launches, Badal said, "According to an agreement with the BIWTA, we will suspend the launch's trip for one week.”
Chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) Shamsuddoha Khondkar said they would take immediate action if they got any complaint of taking high fare.
In response to specific allegations against some launch staff asking high prices, he side stepped the question, and mentioned that there was a monitoring team working at the terminal to look into the issue. “They will obviously take action if [the allegation is] proved,” the BIWTA chief added.
Rafiqul Islam, senior deputy director (port) and also a member of the monitoring team, claimed that no launch owner was found to be involved in charging high for tickets. Some staff could be involved in such activity, he added.