Shawdesh Desk;

City dwellers intending to travel to their village homes by launches and trains to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with their near and dear ones are struggling to manage advance tickets as the owners of water vessels are not selling those at Sadarghat terminal while railway passengers are suffering due to problem in e-ticketing server.

Waterway passengers alleged that they are being asked to buy tickets either from counters outside Dhaka or contact the launch authorities over phone, triggering apprehension of tickets being sold at prices and in black market.

But the regulatory body of the government, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), is not taking any action to address the sufferings of the ticket seekers.

When asked about the allegation, convener of Launch Owners’ Association Mamun-Or-Rashid said they are not selling advance tickets in Sadarghat terminal due to poor presence of ticket seekers in counters.

He also said, “You won’t get tickets in Sadarghat. Tickets are sold in the offices of the respective launch authorities. Most of the launch authorities are selling advance tickets of cabins online while many sell tickets through phone contact.”

Contacted, BIWTA Deputy Director Selim Reza said they were unaware of the matter.

“Advance tickets are supposed to be sold both online and at counters. However, launch owners said the number of tickets is fewer than the demand and all the tickets for cabins are sold out within 30 minutes to an hour of opening the sale,” he said.

Selim said they will inquire into why they are doing so with the passengers.

During a visit to Sadarghat on Thursday, it was seen that huge ticket seekers gathered in the launch terminal to collect advance tickets but most of them returned empty-handed.

Shoriful Islam, who went to Sundarban-12 to collect advance tickets of the Barishal-bound launch, said tickets are not being sold from the counter.

He said, “The launch staff told me to contact the office of the launch company in Barishal. But when I contacted them, I’ve been told that there’s no ticket for April 30. Now, we have to contact black marketeers to get tickets at higher prices.”

Talking to the Daily Sun, Md Mahtab, a staff of the launch, admitted that they are not selling tickets from the counter and most of the advance tickets of single and double cabins have already been sold out.

He said they charge Tk 1,400 for a single cabin ticket while Tk 2,800 for a double cabin one ahead of Eid, which were Tk 1,400 and Tk 2,400 respectively earlier.

“Most of the tickets for April 27, 28, 29 and 30 are sold out. But still you can get tickets for the dates. It’s possible to get tickets from black market at higher prices,” a staff of the launch said, wishing anonymity.

Ruhul Amin, a staff of MV Sundarban-10, said they are not selling advance tickets for cabins from counters.

Other launches, including MV Sundarban-12, MV Surovi-9 and MV Manami, are also not selling tickets from the Sadarghat counters. Staff of MV Parabat-18 said they will sell a few advance tickets at the counter.

When asked, a staff of MV Manami said they sell advance tickets through Manami app.

Meanwhile, railway passengers continue to face problem in managing tickets train tickets both online and offline due to the problem in the e-ticketing server.

Many alleged that they cannot collect advance tickets from the website of Bangladesh Railway because of the shutdown of the server. The passengers who thronged Kamalapur Railway Station on Friday to collect tickets from counter faced the same problem.

Many said they had to wait for upto eight hours to collect tickets from the station while many said most of the tickets went to the hands of black marketeers.

Shahabuddin Khan, a railway passenger, said, “I tried several times to collect a ticket of Netrokona-bound train online on Thursday for April 25 but failed. Later, I collected it through a racket paying Tk 900 which is double than the regular price.”

Abdur Rashid, a passenger of Jamalpur who went to Kamalapur Railway Station to get advance ticket for April 25, said, “I got the ticket after standing in queue for four hours. After reaching the station, I came to know that the server of the counter is not working.”

Talking to journalists, Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Mohammad Masud Sarwar said there is no chance of tickets going to black market.

He said, “Our law enforcement agencies, including Railway Police, Rapid Action Battalion and Detective Branch, are working to prevent scalpers. Trains have the capacity of ferrying 50,000 passengers per day but a higher number of passengers hit the online platform to get advance tickets. We can’t provide tickets for all of them.”

“Sohoz.com takes charge of railway ticketing system only 27 days ago with new software to sell tickets. They will improve the service with the passage of time. Today the server got down once and the company promises that it won’t happen again.”

Masud said the server of the e-ticket of the railway got stalled when a huge number of ticket seekers hit the website.

Railway will sell advance Eid tickets for April 27, 28, 29 and 30 and May 1 on April 23, 24, 25, 26, and 27. Eid holidaymakers can collect the tickets from Kamalapur, Old Fulbaria, Tejgaon, Cantonment and Airport stations.