People started leaving the capital on Thursday evening for outlying areas to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with their families. Eid holidays, with the addition of National Mourning Day, Shab-e-Qadr and weekends, begin on August 15. Transport operators said that although a quite large number of people had started leaving the capital for Eid, likely to fall on August 20, the rush would begin on August 14.
Kazi Badal, counter manager of Hanif Enterprise, said that long-distance buses had started facing crowd since Thursday evening.
Students, businessmen and women and children are leaving the capital a bit early to avoid the crowd and tailback during Eid holidays, transport operators said.
A number of bus passengers said that they were leaving the capital as the operators started charging higher fare in name of advance ticket sales.
Delwar Hossain, an employee of a private firm at Keraniganj, on the outskirts of the capital, at the Gabtali inter-district bus terminal on Friday said that he had sent his wife and two sons to his home town of Magura to avoid the Eid-time rush.
Employees of government, semi-government and autonomous bodies are expected to start leaving on August 14, officials said.
American International University student Syed Wahed said that he was leaving on Friday after the university had been closed for Eid on Thursday.
Businessman Jibon Chowdhury, of Rajbari, said that he was leaving Dhaka along with his family just to avoid tailback on highways.
Long-distance bus operators, however, said that passengers would not face any massive tailback this year as they would get enough time to leave capital before Eid.
The bus operators said that ferry services at Aricha and Mawa points should be kept uninterrupted and additional wreckers kept stand-by to remove run-down buses or vehicles after accidents, if any, from highways.
The Highway Police’s additional superintendent (east zone) Md Asfiquzzaman Akter told New Age that they had already intensified their efforts to tackle the rush of traffic before Eid.
He suggested an early removal of wrecked or conked-out vehicles from highways during the days.
The Highway Police, however, instructed officials of all ranks to be present on highways to make the journey safe for the people.
The superintendent of police of Manikganj, Mizanur Rahman, said that he had reinforced police deployment at strategic points on the Dhaka–Aricha Road.
Passengers at the Gabtali terminal at Mirpur, however, were facing dirty condition of waiting space as the terminal waiting room remain occupied by vagabonds and drug addicts.
Passengers could not lodge any complaints with the authorities as the offices of assistant manager and superintendent of bus terminal were closed.
People who preferred river routes to travel to the south and the south-east have began their journey for outlying areas on Thursday night, launch operators said.
Officials at BIWTA terminal at Sadarghat said that the they started facing the rush.
-With New Age input
