Eid holidaymakers are looking to trains this year to avoid traffic gridlock and shabby highways for their journeys to home town.
Thousands thronged the Kamalapur Railway Station on Saturday, the second day of advance ticket sales, with many queuing up at the counters since last night.
All the 26 booths for selling tickets were overflowing. Most of the people, standing queues said, they are choosing trains this year to avoid pothole-marred highways, traffic gridlock and accidents.
Jagannath University student Imran Uddin was standing on the queue from 2am in the morning. Nearly eight hours later around 10am, he was leaving with four tickets to his destination.
“The highways are really bad. Accidents happen every year during Eid. So, I opted for train. Now I will get some sleep,” he told Bangla Tribune before leaving the rail station.
Banasree-resident Shamsul Alam was waiting in the queue for tickets to the northern district of Rangpur.
“I have been to bus counters for the last two days, but they are sold out. Moreover, the highway journey is marred with traffic gridlock,” said Alam, who arrived at Kamalapur before 3:30am.
Several passengers said that the Dhaka-Tangail Highway has emerged as a horror as it was being upgraded to a four-lane highway.
The condition of the highway to Chittagong is shabby as well. “There are large potholes and the traffic congestion is really bad,” said Cox’s Bazar resident Ashraf Uddin, who came for tickets to Chattogram (Chittagong).
Sultana Mou, who teaches at a private university, was waiting to get tickets for Sylhet.
“I travel to Sylhet every year for the Eid, but whenever I take the bus, it turns into a nightmare; shabby highways, traffic gridlock,” she told Bangla Tribune.
Kamlapur Railway Station Manager Seetangshu Chakrabarty agrees that the pressure for buying ticket is way more this year and that they had to increase the number of ticket booths this year.
Sale of advance train tickets started on Friday (Jun 1) with tickets for Jun 10. On Saturday, passengers brought ticket for journeys on Jun 11.
Tickets for travelling on Jun 12, 13, 14 and 15 will be sold on Jun 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively.
Sale of the tickets start at 8am and ends on 4pm.
Sale of return tickets will start from Jun 10 at Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat under special arrangement
Return tickets for Jun 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 and 24 will be available for sale on Jun 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15.
A person would not be allowed to buy more than four tickets at a time.