Bangladesh News

The capital’s railway stations, launch and bus terminals were crammed with home going city-dwellers last evening as most of them ended the last workday before the Eid holidays and headed out to celebrate the Eid-ul-Fitr with their beloved ones.

Sources at bus and launch terminals said although many vacationers started to set out for home last Thursday evening, most of them thronged to the outbound transport terminals of the city yesterday evening.

Thousands overcrowded different ticket counters in the city, apparently more than available tickets. This pushed up ticket prices much higher than their reach.

Passengers in long queues were awaiting their tickets to home in front of Comilla-bound Tisha and Prince bus counters at Sayedabad bus terminal yesterday evening. They alleged that the tickets were being sold at Tk 100 instead of the regular price of Tk 80.

It was almost the same picture elsewhere — at Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Gulistan bus terminals.

Ticket clerks, however, denied the allegation saying, “Tickets are being sold at fair prices. We used to sell tickets at Tk 20 less as the demand was low before.”

To cope with the Eid rush, Bus Owners’ Association yesterday amassed a total of 500 city-service buses for outbound services and hope to arrange more today.

The city streets already started to look deserted due to the Eid exodus. Usual rush in the shopping malls, however, continued.

Tickets were scarce at Sadarghat launch terminal. However, on the black market tickets for all destinations were abundant for much higher prices.

A Barisal going Salahuddin Mia at Sadarghat launch terminal managed a ticket from a ‘cabin-boy’ at a cost of Tk 2300 after failing to purchase his ticket at the counter. The regular price of the ticket is only Tk 600.

Overload vessels were seen to sail away from the terminal as well. Seven launches were fined yesterday for overloading, terminal sources said.

Many train passengers returned empty-handed from Kamalapur Railway Station as advance tickets for October 15 to 19 for all inter-city trains were sold out.

However, tickets were found with the black marketeers right around the corner.

When asked, Asok Kumar Dey, the station manager, denied the allegation.

Long queues were seen for tickets for local and four private commuter trains at the terminal.

Meanwhile, crowd in the commercial banks started to thin out after 12:00 noon. Rate of call-money was also stable yesterday.