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Private operators are charging home-bound people more than double for tickets of air-conditioned (AC) buses ahead of Eid-ul-Azha festival.
Many home-goers were still desperate to buy bus tickets from different counters at Gabtoli, Kalyanpur, Kalabagan, Mohakhali, Fulbaria, Kamalapur, Sayedabad, and Sadarghat in the city to go to their village home ahead of the festival.
Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated in the country on August 22.
Private bus companies started selling advance tickets from August 07 while sales of train tickets began on August 08 and ended on August 12.
Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) also started selling advance bus tickets from Friday.
Private bus operators, especially those of northern and southern regions, increased ticket prices by 25 per cent to 120 per cent.
During a visit to the counters at Kalyanpur and Gabtoli, the FE correspondent came to know that the companies hiked up the prices of AC bus tickets by maximum 120 per cent.
Zakir Hasan Rony, an official of a local business group, told the FE that he bought three tickets for Tk 2,200 each from Nabil Paribahan counter for travel to Saidpur on August 19.
"Usually, I pay Tk 950-Tk 1,000 for each of tickets during normal times," he said.
Nabil Paribahan, the northern-bound bus company, raised its AC bus fare to Tk 2,200 (Nilphamari)-Tk 2,450 (Thakurgaon) from Tk 1,000 to Tk 1,200 respectively.
Three more companies-SR Paribahan, Hanif Paribahan, and Agamoni-also increased their AC bus fares by 80-90 per cent.
Hanif Paribahan was charging Tk 1,650 for per ticket for its Volvo service towards Rangpur when normal fare is only Tk 900-Tk 950.
However, most of the bus companies also raised fares of normal coaches by 25-35 per cent.
When contacted, general manager of Nabil Paribahan Mohammad Shafiq told the FE that one year after suspension, they restarted AC service for three districts-Nilphamari, Panchagarh and Thakurgaon since June.
He said all the buses will return without carrying any passengers from these districts during the Eid vacation which forced them to raise bus fares.
When asked, the chairman of Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners Association (BTOA) said the association strictly directed the companies to maintain normal prices.
He also asked passengers to lodge complaints with the law enforcement agencies concerned against such malpractices of bus companies.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Passengers Welfare Association Mozammel Haque Chowdhury claimed that there is no specific rule in the country over fixing prices of AC bus tickets.
He said Bangladesh Road Transport Authority can regulate ticket prices of normal coaches. "This encourages the private operators to fix prices at their will," he said.
He urged the government to formulate rules on AC ticket sale by private bus companies.
Meanwhile, sale of advance train tickets from Kamalapur Railway Station ended on Sunday. Tickets for journey on August 21 were sold on the day.
Talking to the FE, many of ticket seekers claimed that they failed to get tickets even after they reached the ticket counters on right time.
Most of them alleged that political-administrational influence and black marketing left a little share of tickets for the common people.