Festivities for Durga Puja and Eid-ul-Azha began on a sour note, as home-bound revellers were left stranded due to shortage of transport, overpriced tickets and congested highways. Sources said thousands of passengers had started flocking to railway stations, bus terminals and launch ghats since Thursday night. The crowd swelled further on Friday morning.The holiday goers complained that transporters at bus terminals and ghats were exploiting the situation to fleece them. “I came here (Mahakhali bus terminal) in the morning to catch a bus for Tangail. I had to pay Tk. 300 for a ticket that usually costs Tk. 90. I had to buy the overpriced ticket from the counter because there was no other option,” said Shamsul Islam. Another passenger, Babul Mia, echoed the complaint. “The ticket counters were charging whatever they liked. Worse, there were no
vigilance teams around to curb the menace,” he said.
The situation was no better at the launch ghats. Passengers alleged that tickets were being sold in the black, compelling everyone to pay inflated fares on the Dhaka-Barisal, Dhaka-Patuakhali and other river routes.
Sources said around 90 per cent people travel by third class. The normal price of a single seat ranges from Tk. 50 to Tk. 100, but now passengers have to pay anything between Tk. 300 and Tk. 500 to get hold of a ticket, they added.
However, the miseries did not end there. Passengers who somehow managed to get tickets after much hassle had to wait for hours for buses and launches.
Sources said lack of
adequate buses to cater to the huge crowd and congested roads had affected schedules.
“Right now, a large
number of cattle-laden trucks are coming to Dhaka ahead of Eid.
This has led to heavy traffic congestion, and as a result buses are failing to reach Dhaka in time,” said Mozammel Haque, a ticket seller of Agomoni Paribahan at the Gabtoli bus terminal.
The situation was really bad on the Dhaka-Tangail highway with a 30-km-long tailback on the road on Friday. It took five hours to cross the 20-km stretch from Hatubhanga in Tangail district to Shafipur in Gazipur district. A large number of vehicles also got stuck on three sides of Chandra as a large number of cattle-carrying trucks were plying towards Dhaka.
Even passengers bound for Sylhet and Chittagong faced serious sufferings on their way home for long tailbacks. The transport association blamed inadequate infrastructure for the gridlock on the roads.
The authorities, however, claimed that steps were taken to remove illegal structures and bus stands on the highway from Gabtoli to Chandra and additional police personnel were deployed to ensure hassle-free journey for the passengers. Similar measures were taken on the stretch from Jatrabari to Kanchpur bridge and Demra road.
The transport authorities also claimed that special services had been launched on 18 river routes for the southern districts since Thursday.
“It is estimated that around 70 to 80 lakh passengers will travel on different routes from the Sadarghat launch terminal during Eid,” Shamsuddoha Khandaker, chairman of the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), said.
“We have taken steps so that passengers do not face any harassment on their way,” Gopal Majumder, deputy director of the Barisal BIWTC, said.
Notwithstanding the claims, passengers were left to suffer as launches failed to maintain schedule. Tossing safety aside, many people scrambled atop roofs of the few available launches. The situation was particularly bad at the Mawa-Kewrakandi ghats.
Passengers at the Kamalapur and Biman Bandor railway stations fared no better. Sources said several intercity trains had left the capital with around 50,000 people on Friday morning. Those who failed to get tickets perched themselves on the roofs of trains, desperate to reach home for the festivities.
OC of General Railway Police (Kamalapur) Abdul Majid, however, claimed: “Steps were taken to restrain passengers from climbing atop compartments and engines.”
But railway officials admitted that the home-bound passengers refused to heed their pleas of not climbing on the roofs of trains.
They added that nine special trains will ply on the Dhaka-Dewanganj-Dhaka, Chittagong-Chandpur-Chittagong, Parbatipur-Dhaka-Parbatipur and Dhaka-Khulna-Dhaka routes to cater to the festive rush. Goods trains will not ply for five days on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, they added.
-With The Independent input
