Even on the second day of advance train ticket sales for the Eid journey, all the tickets for the routes with high demand including North Bengal were sold out. There was great pressure to buy tickets on Saturday too. Although not all the tickets were booked within a minute like yesterday. But it did not help. Ticket aspirants are in a new trouble.
47 people tried to buy tickets against one seat on Rail Sheba app and railway portal soon after online ticket sales started at 8 am on Saturday. 13 lakh ticket aspirants have logged in together for 28 thousand tickets for April 18.
Due to server complications, many could not enter the ‘Rail Sheba’ app. Although many people could enter the app again, they were stuck for a long time after clicking on the ticket booking option.
North Bengal’s Ekota, Hrityan, Panchagarh Express, Lalmoni Express, Rangpur Express and Kurigram Express tickets took two hours to complete. Tickets for the four intercity trains running from Dhaka to Rajshahi – Padma, Silk City, Dhumketu and Banalata Express also ended around 9:30.
Around 20,000 tickets have been sold till 12 noon. According to the railway authorities, due to many people trying at the same time, there is some complexity in the server, not everyone gets the ticket immediately after clicking. As a result, it has to be tried many times. However, as the hits are gradually decreasing, this complication has started to decrease, the authorities said.
In a Facebook group of one and a half lakh railway passengers called ‘Bangladesh Railway Helpline’, the passengers have highlighted their various sufferings.
A person named MD Javed wrote, this state of server cannot be logged in for the last two hours, but tickets are being sold.
Another person named Bakhtiar Rahman wrote that the server could not be accessed in any way. Many are also criticizing the lack of special trains in North Bengal despite the demand.
A passenger named Masud Rana wrote, what a wonder there are no people to buy tickets for Sylhet. But in our North Bengal, tickets are not found soon after 8 o’clock. So what is the meaning of giving so many trains to Sylhet! Even on the occasion of Eid, Rangpur division could get 2 more trains!
Kazi Shamim Hasan wrote in a comment on a post on Facebook, ‘The seats of the rest of the classes were already booked before eight o’clock in the morning. Snigdha and AC class seats are not showing online. This happened to several trains including Silk City. There has been manipulation here.’
On the second day of the ticket sale, Shohoz JV Executive Officer Sandeep Debnath was called several times to inquire about the suffering of the passengers, but he did not pick up the call.
According to the information, tickets for North Bengal Ekota, Drutojanan, Panchagarh Express, Lalmoni Express, Rangpur Express and Kurigram Express took two hours to complete.
The tickets of four intercity trains running from Dhaka to Rajshahi – Padma, Silk City, Dhumketu and Banalata Express also ended around 9:30.
In Jashore and Khulna bound Sundarban and Chitra Express, only 5 seats were shown vacant in Jashore but around 200 seats were shown vacant for Khulna. On the other hand, 24 seats were found vacant in Benapole Express on Benapole route.
In Sylhet route, Kalni, Parabat, Jayantika, Upaban Express tickets are still available.
At the same time, the tickets of Chattala, Subarna, Sonar Bangla Express of Chittagong route are also available.
However, demand for tickets for Agnibeena, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Jamalpur and Teesta Express trains plying on Mymensingh, Jamalpur routes was also high. However, the passengers of this route did not have to suffer to buy tickets.
At 10:50 AM, only 15 of the 3,000 tickets on this route were unsold.
On the other hand, 1500 tickets of Mohanganj and Haor Express of Mymensingh-Netrakona route have been sold. Despite the demand, passengers have not heard of any difficulties in getting tickets on this route. There were 19 unsold tickets for this route at 10:50 am.