Passengers allege black market syndicate controls tickets at Cox's Bazar railway station

A black market syndicate has been allegedly controlling the availability of railway tickets in Cox's Bazar, passengers have complained.

Many passengers have said they couldn't get a ticket from Cox's Bazar to Dhaka despite trying repeatedly; however, upon paying extra to some individuals at the station, they were able to acquire tickets.

However, the station authority has said there is no black market syndicate.

Golam Rabbani, station master of Cox's Bazar railway station, said that there is no chance of selling tickets in the black market.

"The ticket management predominantly occurs online, centrally controlled from Dhaka," he said.

"Tickets for ten days in advance become available online at 8am. However, the staggering demand exceeds availability, with over 100,000 people attempting to purchase these tickets daily as soon as the servers open," he added.

He further mentioned that an individual is allowed to acquire up to 4 tickets against their National ID card.

"Consequently, while some succeed in securing tickets, many are left without," the station master said.

The official further said, "In many cases, people often engage in the resale of tickets rather than purchasing them for personal use. The railway authorities have taken measures to impose fines against such unauthorised ticket-selling activity."

Adding that another train is scheduled to commence operations in January, he said once it starts operation, the pressure on passengers will be reduced and tickets will also be available.

Passengers said the tickets they got from black market dealers have names of other people printed on them.

Tickets are not available even on the online ticketing app, they said.

Many took to social media platforms regarding the unavailability of tickets and raised allegations that railway tickets in Cox's Bazar fell into the hands of a black market syndicate.

They said, the syndicate sells tickets at higher prices via various social media platforms, including Facebook pages, groups, and WhatsApp groups.

Passengers also alleged that tickets were accessible only by paying an extra Tk150-Tk200 per ticket to the syndicate members.

Guards posted at the station are part of the black market syndicate, many passengers said, adding they acquired tickets after paying them the extra money.

One passenger told The Business Standard (TBS) that his brother along with his wife and two children went to the station before the train's departure on Thursday (13 December) afternoon.

"They had not purchased advance tickets. Arriving at the station, my brother inquired with several individuals for tickets and one of them offered to secure 4 tickets for an additional Tk200 per ticket. As my brother agreed to pay an extra charge, the man went inside the station and returned shortly with 2 tickets. With those two tickets, my brother's family travelled to Dhaka," he added.

Many said uniformed members of the railway security force approached passengers without tickets and negotiated for black market tickets.

After agreeing to a price, they get into the station and return later, handing over the desired train tickets to those individuals.

Abdullah Al Mamun, the passenger who acquired tickets, mentioned, "I obtained 4 tickets from a person here. A member of the security force came by, and I purchased these tickets for Tk2,700."

Cox's Bazar railway station counter's system engineer, Hasibul told TBS that over 1,000 additional passengers visit the station daily for tickets these days, therefore, there is a low availability of tickets.