Yesterday’s traffic movement in its considerably faster speed on different routes appeared as blessings for the home goers, on ways to join families and relatives to celebrate the Holy Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festivals of the Muslims.
The homebound people witnessed a lesser traffic congestion on the roads from Dhaka to elsewhere of the country since Sunday morning than what they experienced on two previous days. Sunday’s sharp improvement in traffic movement resulted from the government’s instant measures to ensure smooth journey of the passengers home.
“I came home in Feni district from Dhaka in only 3.00 hours on Sunday, quite impossible and unthinkable on such occasions that only invite sever traffic gridlock eating up 8 to 10 hours to cover this journey. Whereas my uncle and his family came here on Saturday in more than 7 hours of highly irritating journey on a limping speed,” Shahjahan Kabir, a private service holder, told BSS over phone.
On most other routes from Dhaka, the home goers were seen quite happy as their buses and also private vehicles as well as the cattle laden trucks moved in normal speed on the highways to the respective destinations.
M Osman, Member-Secretary of the Dhaka-Chittagong Special Coach Owners Association, said their passenger coaches had to spend 15 to 16 hours on the running wheels to reach Chittagong from Dhaka over the last two days.
“The same vehicles are reaching both the destinations in 5 to 6 hours on Sunday to the utter pleasure of the home goers, especially the women and the kids,” he said and gave credit to the government for such a rapid improvement in the traffic movement on the eve of the Eid-ul-Azha.
Over the last two days, the passenger vehicles on run to their respective destinations crossed the Dhaka-Aricha, Paturia-Daulatdia and the Mawa-Kewrakandi ferry Ghats slowly due to erosion of the river banks with heavy current.
“Besides, goods and cattle laden trucks added more problems to the passenger vehicles on the highways,” said Mobarak Hossain Majumder, Public Relation Officer of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA).
He said the overall situation improved a lot across the ferry ghats with the ferrying of vehicles in larger numbers today side by side with carrying of huge passengers on waterways from Dhaka to different destinations of the country, he added.
The traffic movement on Sylhet-Dhaka highway is now very smooth with only a six-hour journey to reach Sylhet from Dhaka. The Dhaka-Tangail highway, hitherto the worst of one’s travel experience on such occasions, is somewhat better today with slow but steady movement of vehicles.
According to the Gabtoli and the Mohakhali Bus Terminal Sources, full-loaded passenger vehicles left almost on schedules for their destinations to western, south-western and southern districts as well as all districts of north-western and northern Bangladesh with no reports yet of any major traffic problem anywhere.
