Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan says he does not know what he can do about the suffering of people who line up early to buy advance tickets for Eid trips.
“If people start queuing today to buy advance tickets for tomorrow, I don’t really see what can be done about it,” he said in response to a question from the media during a visit to Kamalapur Railway Station on Monday afternoon, reports bdnews24.com.
“There aren’t any complaints about today’s tickets because we have devised a system that eliminates the possibility of fraud. You have to show your identity card to buy a ticket. I can’t use your ticket.”
Asked about allegations that railway officials were involved in black-market sales, the minister said: “How would they sell on the black market. If I can’t use your ticket, why would I buy it from you? If a person wants to buy four tickets they've to submit the identification documents of four people.”
The minister was also asked about complaints regarding the new online ticketing system set up by the joint venture of Shohoz, Synesis and Vincen.
“Shohoz is selling tickets. They'll sell based on NID cards. They're selling half and we're selling the other half through the counters.”
Asked why the same issues were seen on a regular basis, the minister said: “We don't have enough trains to meet the demands of the people. Every day 5.0 million people want to travel by train, while we can only transport 1.5 million.”
“We sell tickets according to our capacity, so not everyone can get a ticket.”
Sujan was asked if there had been any changes after the change-over of ticket selling providers and replied that there certainly had been.
“We're ensuring that the people who buy the tickets are the people who make the trip. This eliminates the possibility of people buying tickets for others… Each ticket has the identification number of the person who can use it.”
Asked whether it would be possible to implement such a system, the minister said it would become apparent once the Eid trips began on Apr 27.
The railways minister inspected the ticket counters and spoke to the people in line. Many told him of the numerous difficulties they faced and complained about the lack of tickets.
