On the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, the Bangladesh Railway on Monday morning started selling of advance tickets in the city for homebound people. Fifty per cent of the total tickets will be sold online and the rest will be sold from the five places. The ticket sale began at 9am at five spots--Kamalapur, Airport, Banani and Tejgaon railway stations and Fulbaria Railway Bhaban office in the capital, said Railways Ministry officials.
Everyday tickets will be sold from 9:00am to 4:00pm without any break while holidaymakers can buy tickets online using mobile app from 6:00am. Maximum four advance rail tickets will be given to one person or passenger. On the launching day, on Monday, hundreds of people were seen at the ticket counters for collecting advance tickets for their destinations. Although the ticket selling process was started from 9:00am, large numbers of ticket seekers were found present and standing on the queues early in the morning.
Kamlapur Railway station manager Aminul Haque said male passengers were collecting tickets from eight counters while another counter was opened for female passengers. According to Railway official sources, the advance ticket sale will continue till August 7. Half of the train tickets will be sold at ticket counters while the rest online, the Ministry sources said.
The advance tickets of August 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 will be available on July 29, 30, 31 and August 1 and 2 respectively. Eid-ul-Azha, the 2nd largest religious festival of Muslims, will be celebrated on August 12, subject to the appearance of the moon. Besides, the return tickets for the journey of August 14 will be available on August 5 and for August 15 on August 6, August 16 on August 7, August 17 on August 8 and for August 18 on August 9.
Each passenger will be able to buy maximum four tickets. Besides, eight pairs of special trains will run on different routes on the occasion of Eid According to sources, passengers of Netrokona-bound Mohongonj and Haor Express will get tickets from Banani Station while tickets of Mymensingh and Jamalpur- bound all intercity trains will be sold at Tejgaon Station. Sylhet and Kishoreganj-bound holidaymakers will have to collect tickets from Old Rail Bhaban in Fulbaria area here.
