Travelers wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)
by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Bangladesh travelers in desperate bid to get advance tickets face "huge snake-like" queues at railway ticket counters in the capital Dhaka.
As the holy Eid-al-Fitr is drawing near, marking the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, the ticket counters at the city railway station have started witnessing a mad rush of people since last weekend.
People of all ages and even women in large numbers are now thronging Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital to buy tickets for Eid trips.
Akhi Akter, a Dhaka dweller, said she managed to get the tickets for her Eid trip to North Bengal, saying she felt lucky to get the reservation as ticket seekers are increasing.
Bangladesh Railway on April 23 began to sell train tickets in advance for Eid travelers who will flock home to join the festival with their kith and kin.
The Muslim majority Bangladesh will celebrate the Eid-al-Fitr festival on or around May 3, depending upon moon sightings.
The desperation for reservation of tickets brings queues of thousands standing for agonizingly long hours that are apparently getting longer day by day.
"I came to the railway station to book tickets to Noakhali district," said Enamul Islam, a ticket seeker.
He said the waiting is getting longer.
"I'm not sure whether finally I could manage a ticket," he said.
Unfortunately, an official who preferred to be unnamed said there is no guarantee for getting a ticket because the number of people seeking tickets is much more than their capacity.
Like previous years, he said, half of the tickets will be sold at counters and the rest online.
Bangladeshi Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan earlier this month said this time advance tickets for Eid would be available in train stations and on the app.
He said they would operate 92 intercity trains in a special arrangement as there would be no weekly break for seven days for trains before Eid.
Professor Md Hadiuzzaman, director of the Accidental Research Institute at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, said recently that the mad rush of millions of home-bound people could impact Bangladesh's entire transportation system during this Eid occasion.
"In our research, we found that 11.5 million people left Dhaka for Eid in 2019, but it reduced to only 6 million during the pandemic."
But this time, he said, the number will be doubled again.
"Some 3 million people may leave Dhaka every day in the four days before Eid," he said.
According to the expert, trains, buses and ferries have the capacity to transport 13-14 lakh (1.3-1.4 million) passengers daily. "Therefore, there is no transportation system for (the rest) 1.6 million people," he added. ■
Travelers wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)
A woman shows a ticket at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)
Women wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh, on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)
Travelers wait to buy tickets for Eid trips at Kamlapur Railway Station in Dhaka, Bangladesh on April 25, 2022.(Xinhua)