Eid vacationers start returning to city

The Eid vacationers on Friday started thronging the capital and other cities to join their work after the holidays. The public and private offices opened on Thursday after six-day Eid holidays, but many vacationers took the day off, extending their holidays to the weekend. A large number of people were seen returning on Friday as the private offices usually remained open Saturday. The communications through the road, rail and waterways were almost uninterrupted and the transporters maintained the schedules almost accordingly. The roads witnessed three major accidents in Brahmanbaria, Madaripur and Tangail on Friday, killing at least 16 people, but long-route buses found their ways free, transporters said. The rail communications through the Dhaka-Chittagong route were yet to normalise due to Wednesday’s derailments of two trains in Chittagong. Railway officials said Friday that the Dhaka-bound train from Chittagong, Turna Nishitha, was delayed to reach the capital for around three hours and the port city-bound train, Mohanagar, was delayed to depart the capital for around one-and-half hour due to the Wednesday’s derailments. The trains to Dhaka witnessed moderate crowd on Friday, said Kamalapur railway station manager Sitangshu Chakraborty.

People return to the capital after celebrating Eid-ul-Azha with near and dear ones in the far-flung areas. The photo was taken at Kamalapur Railway Station in the capital on Friday. — Sanaul Haque

He said 19 trains entered Dhaka from different destinations as of 12 noon while 22 trains left Dhaka by the noon. Anwar Ali, a traveller of Ekota Express from Dinajpur, said he returned Dhaka along with his wife and two children to join his work on Saturday. He said the train was fully booked, but he had no problems to travel along with his family members. The waterways also started crowding on Friday, as 95 launches from different places reached the capital’s Sadarghat terminal by noon. The launches witnessed moderate crowd, said Sadarghat Launch Terminal traffic inspector Hedayet Ullah. The bus operators said their buses reached the capital in scheduled time as roads were free. Shyamoli Paribahan manager Bipul Mukherjee said the Eid passengers had booked their seats in advance. ‘Our buses are booked till September 19’, he said, adding that some 200 buses were scheduled to return Dhaka on Friday and 70 entered the capital by 12pm. Hasan Ali, a private bank employee in the capital, said he returned Dhaka from Khulna by bus on Friday without any hassle. New Age Manikganj correspondent reported that the ferry services on Daulatdia-Paturia route were regular on Friday. The buses got ferries on their arrival at the both ends. Source: New Age