Ehsanul Haque Jasim :
With only one day left before Eid-ul Azha, the rush of homebound passengers to celebrate the festival with their near and dear ones started to gather pace on highways, railways and waterways.
On Tuesday, the Kamlapur Railway Station, Sadarghat Launch Terminal and city bus terminals, including Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Syedabad, were found overcrowded.
The mass exodus begins while approximately 70 lakh people out of nearly 1.5 crore residents have started leaving the capital to go their village homes ahead of the Eid-ul Azha. Presently, around 20 lakh people on an average started leaving the city every day and the trend will continue till the Eid day, according to an estimate of the Highway Police Department.
The people were so desperate to travel to their homes for celebrating Eid no matter how safe or dangerous the journey was. Even, they did not dare to risk their lives traveling on rooftop of buses, trains and launches. Empty and cargo-laden trucks were also seen carrying marginal-income group passengers to their destinations.
At Kamalapur Railway Station, hundreds of people were seen boarding on overloaded trains amid sufferings like the previous years. The schedule of trains, however, was almost regular and it was really a great relief to the passengers.
Officials said a total of 18,000 advance tickets were sold for September 22. Besides, the railway authorities sold standing tickets before any train leaves the station. They said about 12,000 standing tickets have been sold out daily. Many people were also seen taking position on the roof of trains posing their lives in risk.
Bangladesh Railway has so far sold about 13 lakh tickets in advance across the country for five days from September 20 to 24. About one lakh advance tickets were sold only from Kamalapur Railway Station for the five days.
Secretary General of Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samity (BJKS) Mozammel Haque Chowdhury said that nearly two lakh people leave the capital by train daily ahead of the Eid. If the authorities sell 18,000 advance tickets and 12,000 standing tickets, it is easy to understand that the rest of the people travel by train without tickets, he added.
Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Sitangshu Chakrabarty said that the trains have the capacity of carrying about 20,000 to 30,000 passengers daily ahead of the Eid against the demand for at least for 50,000. Bangladesh Railway has connected 138 additional passenger coaches and 25 locomotives with the existing 886 coaches and 176 locomotives. Meanwhile, many people are facing bitter experience in their journey on the highways. The sufferings were intensified due to rainfall and long tailback in some parts of the highways. Intermittent rainfall in different parts of the country in the last couple of days hindered the journeys of people to various destinations. Vehicles were passing slowly due to water on both sides of the highways.
Dilapidated roads and highways across the country have already posed a serious problem to a huge number of people at a time of going to their village homes from the capital just before Eid ul Azha.
Thousands of passengers were caught in long tailback on different highways, including the Dhaka-Tangail highway on Monday. The homebound people had also faced long tailback on the highway on Sunday and Saturday.
At present, several important national and regional highways including Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Moulvibazar, Dhaka-Habiganj, Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar, Dhaka-Feni and Dhaka-Noakhali are in a bad shape due to numerous potholes and cracks.
Particularly, the condition of Dhaka-Chittagong highway is in bad shape due to the on-going repairing works at different points. Besides, the construction work of four-lane is still not completed, which has made the situation harder for the drivers and passengers.
Official sources said, 2,500 kilometer highways out of total 3,544 km in the country is fit to traffic, while 1,000 km is under repair work. “We are now fighting with natural calamity. Rain is now a regular phenomenon. It is tough to keep the highways smooth after heavy rain,” Chief Engineer of Roads and Highway M Feroz Iqbal said.
According to the witnesses, the vehicular movement came to a halt early in the morningof Monday, causing a huge traffic jam from Jirani point of Gazipur to Kurni in Mirzapur upazila of Tangail.
Thousands of passengers faced a 20-kilometre tailback on the highway. The tailback was created due to heavy pressure of vehicles and cattle-loaded trucks ahead of the Eid, said Humayun Kabir, Officer-in-Charge of Gorai Highway Police Outpost.
Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader admitted that the people are facing sufferings on the roads and highways ahead of the Eid. “The roads and highways are being damaged frequently due to rainfall. We are working hard to make the home journey easy,” the Minister said.
Talking to reporters during his visit to the Gabtoli Bus Terminal, the Minister said that the heavy vehicles, including truck and lorry, would not be allowed to use highways across the country from yesterday (Tuesday). The ban will remain effective three days also after the Eid.
It is alleged that the bus operators were charging excess fare on short-distance routes like Dhaka-Kishoreganj, Dhaka-Comilla and Dhaka-Narsingdi.
The long-distance bus fare on routes like Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Moulvibazar, Dhaka-Habiganj, Dhaka-Cox’s Bazar, Dhaka-Feni and Dhaka-Noakhali were also charged higher than usual.
Sources said both public and private operators have doubled the number of transports of various modes to carry homebound passengers from the capital ahead of the festival.
On the other hand, Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) and private launch operators have already started special launch services to carry passengers to the country’s southern region.
Officials said despite recent rainfall and forecast of further thunderstorms in the next couple of days, thousands have chosen the waterways as their preferred mode of travel this Eid. And yesterday, the Sadarghat terminal experienced the greatest pressure as thousands chose launches to travel to their homes in southern districts.
The travellers also continue to gamble with their own lives as the launches – like every other year – are picking up passengers exceeding their capacity. The entire Sadarghat launch terminal and its surrounding areas were packed to the brink with people looking to secure a seat in launches bound for their homes yesterday.
Most of the 60 launches that left the docks between noon and evening hours reportedly picked up passengers that numbered more than double their capacity. It was alleged that launch operators were flouting existing rules and ignoring the Shipping Minister’s recent directives.
Meanwhile, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan said that his ministry had taken adequate measures to tackle any untoward situation. “No launch will be allowed to leave the terminal with extra passengers,” the Shipping Minister said.
