Eid-ul-Fitr: Long ques at Kamalapur for advance train tickets

Bangladesh Railway (BR) started selling advance tickets on Saturday morning for home-goers ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr.

Advance tickets are being sold at five locations – Kamalapur, Airport, Banani, and Tejgaon railway stations, and Fulbaria – in the capital. 

Several hundred holidaymakers stood in long lines at Dhaka's Kamalapur Railway Station on the first day (23 April) of the sales to get tickets for travel on 27 April.

Each passenger was able to buy a maximum of four tickets.

Sales of tickets started at 8am and was supposed to continue until 4pm. However, offline tickets were sold out at around 12pm whereas online sales ended around 9am. 

Speaking with The Business Standard, Kishore Khan, who had been waiting in line from 3am today, said,  "I and my friends have come to Kamalapur for the Eid tickets.

There were several hundred others who had come to the station during the early hours of today."

Meanwhile, many feared that they would not be able to get tickets due to the long queues and high demand as most of the home goers are trying to avoid travel by road.

One such person is Mohammad Saad Uddin. 

He said "I came here after 7am and stood in line. I don't think I will get the tickets today as the line is too long. There are people at my home who are trying to book tickets online."

Besides, a large portion of the ticket-seekers said they could not purchase tickets online due mainly to server problems.

Ashraf said, who has been trying to buy tickets online for the past two days said, "The website is very slow. Servers stay down most of the time. I was forced to come to Kamalapur for the tickets but I doubt I will get any as it is too crowded."

The advance tickets for 28-30 April and 1 May will be available on 24, 25, 26 and 27 April respectively.

Travellers must show their NID cards in order to buy tickets. A person can buy up to four tickets at a time but must provide a NID or other valid card for accompanying passengers as well.  

However, if a person does not have a NID card, they have to provide their birth registration certificate, student ID card or any other form of identification.

Apart from regular intercity trains, western and Khulna-bound special train tickets will be sold from Kamalapur Railway Station, Chattogram and Noakhali special tickets from Dhaka Airport Station, Mymensingh and Jamalpur and Dewanganj tickets from Tejgaon Station, Mohonganj special tickets from Dhaka Cantonment, Sylhet and Kishoreganj tickets from Fulbaria Station.

Tickets for these trains will not be sold online.

The tickets would be issued for travelling until 1 or 2 May. The return ticket for the initial day after Eid vacation, 5 May, would be sold from 1 May.