Chaos at Kamalapur railway station on last day of Eid trips

Chaos overcame discipline at Kamalapur Railway Station on the final day of trips ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr.

All the trains that left the station in the morning were overcrowded. The trains heading north in particular barely had room in the cars for people to stand. Passengers were seen crowding onto the train roofs. Usually, railway officers check train tickets at the entrance of the station, but no one bothered on Tuesday.

The Burimari Express headed to Lalmonirhat, the Panchagarh-bound Ekota Express, the Rangpur Express, and the Rajshahi-bound Dhumketu Express were packed with passengers, reports bdnews24.com.

The Ekota Express was scheduled to leave the station at 10:15am. When it reached the platform around 10am, the passengers rushed inside.

Many passengers from the Joydebpur, Tongi and Airport stations had already boarded before the train reached Kamalapur in order to grab seats. In an instant, the doors of the train cars were overflowing as too many passengers were stuffed inside. Many people, including women and children, got on by climbing in through the windows.

Md Russel Haque works at a private company in Narayanganj. He got on the Ekota Express to travel to Parbatipur.

There’s no space to walk in the crowded train, Russel said, adding that he had squeezed in through the window.

"I managed to get a ticket after a lot of trouble. Then it was very hard to get onboard. There was no way to get in through the door."

Another passenger, Md Rakibul Islam, came from Joydebpur. He works as an assistant engineer at a garment factory in Sreepur. Rakibul came to Dhaka to ensure he got a seat for his trip to Panchagarh.

"My ticket shows that I should get on board at Joydebpur. But it's very tough to get on the train at Joydebpur. Hence, I already got on the train as it was coming to Dhaka to grab a seat," he said.

Jahangir Alam, an accounting officer at a private structural developer company, said he bought a train ticket online. But on Tuesday, he found it very tough to get on the train. He also struggled to find his seat as many passengers were standing inside the train car.

"They sell 'standing tickets' [allowing people to stand inside train cars], which draws a big crowd. Otherwise, the trains would not be overcrowded."

Some of the trains ran late on Tuesday. The Rangpur Express left the station at 9:40am instead of 9:00am, while the Ekota Express set off at 10:45am instead of 10:15am.

Train trips proceeded in a disciplined manner for the first six days of Eid travel, said Mohammad Sarwar Masud, manager at Kamalapur Railway Station. "But we couldn't manage the overwhelming crowd after Monday evening."

"Eid travel by train kicked off on Apr 3. We were running the service in an orderly and disciplined way until Monday afternoon. Then the number of passengers skyrocketed suddenly. The passengers are mostly travelling north. Our law enforcers tried their best, but couldn't manage the crowd," the manager said.