Gazi Anowarul Hoque :
A large number of people on Thursday left the capital by different modes of transportation for their urban and rural homes to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha, the second biggest festival of the Muslim community, with their kith and kin.
The daylong traffic congestion and journey hassles in the city could not stop them from traveling. Thursday was the beginning of the journey.
Although six-day Eid holidays will start from September 11, many people started leaving the city from Thursday (September 8), as Friday and Saturday (September 9 and 10) are weekly holidays.
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority and the Bangladesh Railway kicked off their first Eid special service on the day.
Visiting different terminals in the capital city, it was seen that many homebound people were favouring launch and train journey due to poor state of roads and highways as well as traffic congestion.
According to various sources,all advance bus, train and launch tickets for the Eid special journey were sold out. The mad rush of homebound passengers would continue till next Monday.
The New Nation correspondent met a government employee Mahmudul Haque who was waiting at Kamalapur Railway Station for the Rangpur express.
“I am leaving the city a bit early just to avoid harassment,” said Mahmud. Around 64 pair of trains will leave and arrive at the Kamalapur Railway Station daily. In addition, four pairs of special intercity trains will commute between Dhaka and Dewanganj of Mymensingh, Parbatipur of Dinajpur and Khulna. A new train service was introduced on Thursday between Dhaka and Mohanganj.
Sadarghat launch terminal witnessed a huge rush of passengers yesterday. The vehicular movement from Jagannath University to the terminal came to halt from the afternoon due to the rush of the country’s southern region bound passengers.
“I traveled by bus last year. But I am preferring launch this year to avoid traffic jam and accident on the deplorable road,” said Mahmud Akash, who was waiting for a Barisal-bound launch at the terminal.
Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) estimates that nearly 30 lakh people will go to their village homes by launchs during the Eid. But the authorities can’t accommodate the huge number of passengers in launches.
According to BIWTA, the special launch service that started from yesterday would run for next five days after Eid. It will operate service on 39 routes in the southern part of the country.
Joynal Abedin, Joint Director of BIWTA of Sadarghat Terminal told the New Nation on Thursday that all necessary steps are being taken to ensure safe journey for the passengers.
He said that the authority deployed 700 cops for security and stopped hawkers disturbing the terminal area.
Sadik Ahmed, Manager of ‘Agradut Launch’, said, they are trying to maintain discipline.
Although the home-goers are favouring launch and train journey, rush of passengers were also seen at Gabtali, Mohakhali and Sayedabad bus terminals, as many of them did not collect train or launch tickets.
The homesick people, who left the city by bus, suffered more than train and launch, as their vehicles got stuck in severe traffic jams on the highways.
Meanwhile, failing to get tickets from the highway buses, many people bought tickets of small bus operators. It was alleged that some local private bus services are gearing up to lend some of their vehicles to run on the long routes. Some of these buses are 10-20 years old and not even fit to carry passengers within the city.
