Waits getting longer at Kamalapur

They took iftar there, spent the night chatting or playing cards or lying on the floor, and then had sehri there. Finally their wait came to a close as the clock struck 9:00am.

That was the picture of Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital where people waited more than half a day or as long as 16 hours to get train tickets on the third day of advance sales.

And those who succeeded were all smiles.

"All my toil seems very little as I have had my ticket and I will be able to enjoy Eid with my parents," said Shawkat, an employee of a private company.

Still many did not get tickets because demand was way beyond supply.

"I came to the station after sehri. When I reached there, many people were already in the queue. Tickets ran out before my turn came," said Shimul, a university student, around 12:00pm.

Today the waits would be longer still.

Visiting the railway station, this correspondent saw many people preparing to line up around 3:30pm yesterday for tickets which will start selling at 9:00am today.

On Thursday, the first day of advance sales, almost all who lined up got tickets.

Tickets of July 16 to 17 will be sold today and tomorrow at Kamalapur and Chittagong railway stations, and return tickets of July 20 and 21 will be sold on July 16 and 17 at Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat and other stations.

One can buy a maximum of four tickets.

A total of 9,035 tickets with seat numbers of intercity trains and 25,000 tickets of local and mail trains are distributed at Kamalapur daily, said railway officials.

Meanwhile, railway security officers  yesterday detained two persons allegedly for attempting to buy tickets and sell them on the black market.

BRTC BUS

Although the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTC) also started selling advance bus tickets on Friday, it drew very little response.

No ticket-seeker was seen at BRTC's Motijheel bus depot around 3:00pm yesterday.

Tickets are being sold at Motijheel, Gulistan, Kalyanpur, Mirpur and Joarsahara bus stands in Dhaka.

Officials said three to fours days ahead of Eid, 500 additional buses will be added to BRTC's existing fleet of 500 buses, which operate daily on inter-district routes.