On the occasion of the holy Eid-ul-Fitr, people used to come to Kamalapur Bangladesh railway station to buy train tickets in advance. Tickets were available after a long wait in the overcrowded crowd. Now that picture has changed due to advance online sale of train tickets. But now people have to ‘battle’ online to get tickets. In the first half hour of ticket release, close to one crore tickets were attempted or hit.
Now passengers can also buy advance bus tickets online. As a result, people’s suffering has also decreased. Although there is an opportunity to buy tickets in advance at some transport counters, the bus counters in Dhaka were not crowded until yesterday Thursday.
On the occasion of Eid, the special launch service will start on April 6 on the Dhaka-Barisal route. However, there is no difficulty in taking advance tickets from Dhaka. The launch counters at Sadarghat are mostly empty. According to the owners and employees of the launch, after the launch of the Padma Setu, passengers from the southern region are preferring the road route. Therefore, passengers are not available in the launch as before. There is no pressure for passengers even on the occasion of Eid.
On the other hand, most of the domestic flight tickets for the few days before Eid-ul-Fitr have already been sold. Majority of passengers buy tickets online through credit card and mobile banking. According to the relevant sources, the tickets for the economy seats of the aircraft have been sold online or on the app long ago. The tickets that are still unsold cost two to three times more.Read more
Like trains, bus advance tickets are also being sold online. As a result, even though advance bus ticket sales have started on Eid journey, the terminals are not overcrowded with passengers.
Fights for Bangladesh railway train tickets
Although 100% of advance train tickets are sold online, it is less than the demand. The number of tickets released online every day is much more than the number of ticket aspirants. Especially in the morning, an average of 600 people try to get each ticket in the first half hour when train tickets start selling.
Railway sources say that tickets for April 7 were sold yesterday. In the first half hour of ticket sales in the western section of the train this morning, 9.4 million hits were made and in the afternoon, 7.45 million hits were made in the first half hour of ticket sales in the eastern section. Earlier, tickets for the western zone hit around crores in the first half hour of the morning and 50 lakhs in the first half hour for the eastern zone.
Railway officials say there is a daily demand of at least four lakh tickets. A little over 30,000 intercity train tickets are being sold every day. As a result, many people are not getting tickets.Read more
Although 100% of advance train tickets are sold online, it is less than the demand.
The house of Ahmed Sumon, the executive manager of the sales department of a private company, is in Dewanganj of Jamalpur. He always buys Teesta Express ticket to go home on Eid. Ahmed Sumon told Prothom Alo, ‘Earlier, I used to go to the railway station at night with a few people. I used to spend several hours awake at night due to mosquito bites. Even then, many times I did not get tickets. Now online tickets can be purchased from anywhere. But many times the app cannot be accessed.’
This time on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitr, advance train ticket sales have started on March 24. Will continue till March 30. Bangladesh Railway has arranged the schedule of this year’s Eid journey on the assumption that Eid will be on April 11 subject to sighting of the moon.
Dhaka Medical student Tanazzatul Islam will go to Cox’s Bazar from Dhaka on Eid. He bought an advance ticket for the March 31 train on March 24. He told Prothom Alo, ‘There was no trouble in making tickets online. When I went online for tickets, 51 tickets were still empty. Earlier there was a lot of harassment for a ticket.’Read more
On the occasion of Eid, the special launch service will start on April 6 on the Dhaka-Barisal route. However, there is no difficulty in taking advance tickets from Dhaka.
Last year, 100% of train tickets were sold online for the Eid trip. Railway authorities say that this initiative has been taken to reduce the suffering of standing in line for hours for Eid tickets and to stop black market. Online service provider Sahaja.com is in charge of ticket sales.
Apart from this, even though online tickets are sold, many passengers complain that not everyone is getting tickets online. Even if the scheduled destination and train seats are shown to be vacant, there is a problem in getting that ticket.
Officials of Railways and Sahaj.com say that many people are trying to buy one ticket at a time. One of them is successful but others are not getting tickets.Read more
Harassment of passengers for train and bus tickets during Eid trip has reduced a lot. But those who don’t have the technical knowledge or devices to buy tickets online should not be left out; That also needs to be confirmed.
Saidur Rahman, Executive Director of Road Safety Foundation
60 Percent of Bus Tickets Are Online
Like trains, bus advance tickets are also being sold online. As a result, even though advance bus ticket sales have started on Eid journey, the terminals are not overcrowded with passengers.
Talked about selling bus tickets online with Chairman of Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association and Managing Director of Shyamoli Paribahan Ramesh Chandra Ghosh. He told Prothom Alo that big companies are selling 60 to 70 percent of their bus tickets online. Such measures have been taken keeping in mind the convenience of the passengers. Passengers do not have to pay the fare at the bus counter.
Organizations working on passenger rights consider online ticket sales a positive thing. Saidur Rahman, executive director of Road Safety Foundation, told Prothom Alo that harassment of passengers for train and bus tickets during the Eid journey has reduced a lot. But those who don’t have the technical knowledge or devices to buy tickets online should not be left out; That also needs to be confirmed. At the same time, the authorities should be active in stopping the digital black market opportunities with tickets.
Obaidullah Seikh