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Despite guarantees of normal bus fares for different routes during Eid-ul-Azha festival, private bus operators were found charging much higher for advance tickets.
Prices of tickets for normal coaches have increased by 17 to 30 per cent while air conditioned (AC) bus ticket prices were raised by 60 to 90 per cent in different routes ahead of the sacrificial festival.
Ticket-seekers, however, claimed anomalies in online sales gave opportunity to the black marketers to cash in on most of tickets.
Advance bus ticket sales began on July 29 for the Eid-ul-Azha festival, which is to be held on August 12.
Md Ashraful Islam Porag, an NGO official, was found bargaining with a staff of Nabil Paribahan at its Majar Road counter on Saturday night as he was charged Tk 2,250 for an AC ticket towards Nilphamari of August 10.
He told the FE that normal ticket price of that special Nabil Scannia is Tk 1,200.
He said this is a regular phenomenon during every Eid that operators charge much higher from the helpless passengers.
"We are used to being charged excessive fares and we don't a have choice but to pay that amount," he added.
AC ticket towards Panchagargh of Nabil Paribahan was selling at Tk 2,450 which, at other times, is sold at Tk 1,350.
Ticket fares for non-AC buses heading towards districts of Rangpur and Rajshahi divisions-Nabil Paribahan, Hanif, Dipjol, S R Paribahan etc.-have increased by 17 per cent to 30 per cent (Tk 100 to Tk 250) per ticket.
Md Shafiq, manager of Nabil Paribahan, said they reduced trips of some districts amid the ongoing flood that caused damages to many linking roads.
He claimed non-AC bus fares remained the same as it was in the Eid-ul-Fitr.
He said the AC bus fares have been fixed by the operators after a meeting of the Bus Truck Owners' Association.
The ticket prices increased as most of the buses would be returning empty to Dhaka from the districts, he said.
Meanwhile, Md Anisuzzaman, a counter manager of Hanif Enterprise at Shyamoli, told the FE that demands for tickets of August 07, 08 and 09 were higher.
They already sold out all tickets for August 08 and 09-- last office day is Thursday (August 08).
But the bus companies were getting little response for tickets of August 10 and 11.
Md Abduls Salam, counter manager at Desh Travels at Kalyanpur in the city, said they were charging a little bit higher for Rajshahi and Chapainawabganj and the customers are not taking it seriously.
However, many home-goers claimed they had to pay more than double to black marketers than the price fixed by the bus operators for August 08 tickets.
Abir Alam, an employee of an insurance company, said he bought two Rangpur-bound non-AC bus tickets of SR Travels at Tk 1,050 each, whereas the normal fare is Tk 650.
Mr Alam said the anomalies in online sales have given opportunities to black marketers.
He said server of shohoz.com was totally down on July 29 when both online and counter sale of advance bus tickets began.
He said people could hardly buy tickets of August 08 online.
"Both the road transport minister and the home minister declared earlier that a hassle free advance ticket sale and smooth journey will be ensured ahead of the Eid", said Secretary of Bangladesh Passenger's Welfare Association Md Mozammel Haque Chowdhury.
But we hardly could find any presence of the law enforcers regarding the issues, he claimed.
He said more than 10 million people leave the city during the Eid festivals through buses but quality bus companies have capacity to carry only 20 per cent.
He also said the state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) has capacity of carrying less than 1.0 per cent of the demand.
Most of the passengers have to depend on low-rated buses which create hassles for the passengers during the Eid journey.
He added lack of monitoring has given the traders the opportunity to fix bus fares whimsically.