Unlike the previous two days, the country’s roads and waterways witnessed less traffic yesterday, which means Eid and Puja holidaymakers suffered little on their way home.
There were hardly any queues of vehicles on major highways like Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail, which witnessed tailbacks on Friday and Saturday, causing immense sufferings to people heading home.
Movement of traffic was smooth also due to monitoring of law enforcement agencies and the local administration. Roads and Highways Department was making frantic efforts to keep the roads in good shape, reported our correspondents in different districts.
Ferry services at Mawa-Kawrakandi and Paturia-Daulatdia ghats were also smooth.
However, over-crowding of trains and launches, and charging extra fares at Kamalapur Railway Station and the Sadarghat Launch Terminal continued.
The efforts of the authorities concerned to get people off the roof of trains and launches seemed to have failed. Many were seen on the roofs as they failed to find room inside.
Manager Sirajul Islam of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation at Mawa said there were no gridlock at the ferry terminal probably because of the addition of four new ferries with the existing 13.
He said usually the Eid traffic volume goes up to 4,000 vehicles a day.
However, many passengers were reportedly avoiding ferries and opting for speedboats and launches, with the former getting the preference of many.
Our correspondent reported that launches and speedboats were charging exorbitantly. Launches were taking Tk 35 fare in place of Tk 28, while speedboats were charging Tk 200 whereas the regular fare was Tk 140.
Launches were reportedly taking more load than their capacity, our correspondent reported, adding that the vessels lacked adequate lifebuoys.
Similar situation was seen at Sadarghat yesterday afternoon where many launches waited to set off until they were overloaded with passengers.
Mohammad Mohiuddin, an employee of a private firm, got on MV Prince of Rasel Plus around 11:00am. He said, “The launch did not leave the terminal even after being overloaded at 6:00pm. It waited for more passengers. But the authorities concerned did nothing.”
However, a reporter of The Daily Star found that terminal authorities also forced some launches to depart after they reached their passenger capacity.
Nevertheless, people of southern regions heading home had a comparatively comfortable exit from the capital at Sadarghat launch terminal yesterday with little rush to be seen.
Launch operators said the rush was not like the previous years as a huge number of people heading home had left the capital in the last two days.
They imagined that the rush of home-goers would increase today and tomorrow after the garment factories close for the holidays.
Sources said the rush was less this Eid as many people chose to stay in Dhaka or left their children behind since the Primary School Certificate and Junior School Certificate examinations were scheduled for next month.
At Sadarghat, businessman Main Uddin, father of two sons, was going to Barguna alone to celebrate Eid with his parents. He said, “As my sons’ exams are scheduled to be held after the Eid, they are celebrating the festival with their mother in Dhaka.”
The trains that left Kamalapur Railway Station yesterday barely had any room to place a foot onboard. Like previous years, the authorities were selling standing tickets. But a good number of tickets went into the hands of scalpers and passengers had to buy those for twice or thrice the price.
While many bought tickets queuing for hours on end, tickets from scalpers were easily available to those who did not want to stand in a queue.
A Dhaka to Chittagong first-class ticket, in the Snigdha compartments of the Turna train, costs Tk 630 but it was being sold for Tk 1,200 by the scalpers.
Source: The Daily Star
