Most of the tickets were "sold out" within a few hours after the counters opened at Kamalapur Railway Station yesterday, the second day of advance train ticket sale.

Hundreds of people thronged the station. Many returned empty-handed even after standing in queues for hours.

Some of them alleged that a huge number of tickets had been grabbed by some dishonest traders for selling those in the black market.

However, the railway authorities said the demand for tickets was much higher than the number of seats available, leading to the crisis of tickets.

Solaiman Hossain, who was looking for a Silk City Express ticket to Rajshahi on September 21, said he had gone to the station around 5:30am yesterday. 

"There were some 50 people ahead of me in my line. But before my turn came, a railway employee around 12 noon announced that all the tickets had been sold out," he said. 

Ticket-seekers, who wanted go to other districts in different trains, shared similar experiences with this correspondent.

Of them, Jahangir, a university student from Chittagong, said, "My friend and I couldn't get tickets although there were only 30 to 35 people ahead of us in the line. Where did all the tickets go?"

According to him, tickets were unavailable as a large number of tickets had already been collected by some traders involved in black market. Some other passengers echoed him.

Yesterday, Railway police arrested three people at the station on charges of selling tickets in the black market. The law enforcers said 17 tickets for different destinations were found with them.

Bangladesh Railway (BR) Additional Director General (operations) Habibur Rahman said there was no scope for committing the crime because of their strict monitoring.

He said around 14,000 tickets were sold daily at Kamalapur while the demand was over 50,000.

BR started selling advance train tickets on Tuesday to facilitate a hassle-free journey for holidaymakers ahead of Eid which is to be celebrated on September 25.

Tickets for only September 21 were sold yesterday. Those who had joined the queues at the Kamalapur Railway Station on Tuesday night or in the early hours of yesterday managed to secure tickets.

Tickets for September 22, 23 and 24 would be available today, tomorrow and Saturday.

Return tickets for September 27, 28, 29, 30 and October 1 will be sold on September 23, 24, 25, 26 and 27 respectively at Rajshahi, Khulna, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Lalmonirhat railway stations.

A person can buy maximum four tickets.

BRTC

The state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) started selling advance bus tickets yesterday.

Visiting the Motijheel bus depot yesterday noon, The Daily Star saw a few ticket-seekers before a counter there.

However, there had been huge rush of passengers before the ticket counters of private bus operators in the capital.

BRTC will operate around 500 buses across the country during the Eid rush, its chairman Mizanur Rahman told The Daily Star.