Staff Reporter :Though official holidays for the Eid-ul-Fitr have already been ended, thousands of city residents, mostly women and children, swarmed parks, museums and zoo on Sunday for getting extra recreation. Like the previous years, most of the visitors flocked to the Sangsad Bhaban area, the Chandrima Uddyan, the Ramna Park, the Suhrawardi Uddyan, the National Museum at Shahbagh, Lalbagh Fort, Ahsan Manjil, Mirpur Zoo, Botanical Garden, Balda Garden, Rabindra Sarabor, Fantasy Kingdom, Nandan Park at Ashulia, Children’s Parks at Shyamoli and Shahbagh.Of them, Mirpur Zoo earned record revenues this year as over two lakh people visited the park during the Eid holidays to see around 160 types of animals. “The environment inside the zoo improved much. The zoo authority imported a number of new animals which attracted the huge crowd,” said an on-duty official.The adjacent Botanical Garden also witnessed a large number of visitors. It draws those people only who love nature and have thirst for knowledge.Besides, the Lalbagh Fort and Ahsan Manjil have become as main attractions of citizens this year. Hundreds of enthusiastic and history-loving people were seen to go to the venues in the old part of Dhaka. The Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban Chattar, the Crescent Lake and the Chandrima Udyan, like other years, were no less eye-catching this year also. “People come here to have the glimpse of the marvelous design of the Sangsad Bhaan. Moreover, a large open space almost free of polluted environment and the strong security are the two other sources of large arrival of visitors, said an official of Sher-e Bangla Nagar police station. Two children’s parks at the Shahbagh and Shyamoli areas were humming with kids’ murmur as the city faces scarcity of parks.A long-queue of people, mostly women and children, was seen to buy tickets for entering the National Museum and Bangabandhu Novo Theatre atBijoy Sarani “There are many sources of knowledge in the Novo Theatre,” Ticket seller Alauddin Ahmed said, adding, “The rush of crowds exceeds by five to six times during Eid festival.”A huge number of visitors, from all walks of life, come to the Ramna Park every day round the year. This number outclasses during the Eid holidays. This year, the number of visitors were more than expectation due to long nine days holiday. Besides, the security measures taken by the law enforcing agencies also inspired the holiday-makers,” said a senior official of Dhaka South City Corporation, adding that the adjacent Suhrawardi Uddyan also drew a large number of the city residents.
