Many home-goers go back without ticket after waiting in long queues

Several hundred Eid-time home-goers on Saturday had to go back without advance train tickets from capital’s Kamalapur Railway Station after waiting in queues for several hours.
Railway officials said that they experienced the biggest rush of ticket seekers since morning when they started selling tickets for August 20, as Eid-ul-Azha is likely to be observed on August 22.
Bangladesh Railway will sell advance tickets today for August 21.
Ticket seekers complained that the Eid ticket sales halted around 10:30am as Railway’s computer system went out of order when several thousand people were on queues amid extreme heat in the station.
Jagannath University student Abid Hasan said that ticket sales resumed around 11:30am after one-hour suspension due to the technical glitch but the service delivery became slow.
Kamalapur station manager Sitangshu Chakraborty said that it was not Bangladesh Railway but the internet service provider who was responsible for the glitch. 
With Eid-ul-Azha only two weeks away, advance sale of train tickets started on August 8.
Thousands of people thronged ticket counters at the railway station—with many waiting overnight—to buy tickets, hoping to celebrate Eid with loved ones at home but several hundred of them went back home without tickets.
One of them, Mohiuddin Hasan Shanto said that he stood in a queue around 9:00pm to collect four tickets to go to his country house in Rajshahi but could not collect any ticket.
He said that several hundred holiday makers, particularly people bound for Rajshahi, Dinajpur and Jamalpur went back without tickets.
Many home-goers told New Age that they got tickets after standing in the queue for 30-35 hours.
The home-goers blamed railway’s mismanagement and corruption for their sufferings.
A number of holiday-makers complained that they did not get tickets for their expected day and some for their expected station. 
Kamalapur station manager Sitangshu said that they started selling tickets since 8:00am and all the 26,895 tickets were sold out by midday.
Businessman Billal Hossain, who needed three tickets for his family, said that he would again stand in the queue on Sunday to collect tickets for August 21 journey as he could not get tickets on Saturday.
In Kamalapur station, several hundred women were also seen waiting in queues for tickets.
Railway officials said that tickets for the return journey to the capital would be sold at Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat stations from 8:00am.
On August 15, advance return tickets will be sold for August 24, on August 16 for August 25, on August 17 for August 26, on August 18 for August 27 and on August 19 for August 28.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net