Eid Holidays
Rush for home begins today
With the Eid-ul-Fitr now only days away, a mass exodus from capital will begin today as a six-day-long public holiday commences tomorrow.
Thousands of people have already bought advance bus and train tickets to go to village homes to celebrate the festival with their families.
Although government offices will remain open today, many officials and employees plan to leave their offices early to catch transport.
“My bus will start at 3:00pm tomorrow [Tuesday] from Kalyanpur. So I’ll have to leave the office by 1:00pm to negotiate the traffic jam,” said Kawsar Mahmud, a government employee.
If the Eid comes off on August 20, the Eid holidays will extend by a day. Offices will resume on August 22, but August 24 and 25 are weekend.
Keeping this in mind, many officials and employees are taking casual leave on August 22 and 23 to make it an 11-day holiday.
Visiting the office of Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) yesterday, this correspondent found dozens of officials submitted leave applications for those two days.
Bus operators and railway authorities expressed concerns that their regular schedule might collapse due to traffic congestion and huge pressure of home-bound passengers.
“Bus schedule might be delayed due to rush of passengers, traffic jam and mechanical faults with the vehicles,” said Ramesh Chandra Ghosh, managing director of Shyamoli Paribahan.
According to railway rules, a train stops for three minutes at a particular station for boarding and alighting of passengers. When the number of passengers increases, it takes around 10 minutes.
If there are about 10 stations on a route, the train get delayed for around one and a half hours. So delay in train schedule is usual during the Eid rush, said Md Sardar Shahdat Ali, divisional railway manager of Bangladesh Railway.
Tickets of all the renowned bus companies for today’s trips have been sold out at least 10 days earlier, claimed bus operators. The train tickets were sold out on August 5.
“All of our tickets for tomorrow [Tuesday] are sold. Around 400 buses of our company will leave Dhaka from 6:00am to midnight. Over 15,000 passengers will travel by our buses,” said Ramesh.
Meanwhile, both government and private launch operators will start operating special trips today to cope with the extra rush of passengers.
“Assessing the demand of the passengers, we will operate special trips today,” said Badiuzzaman Badal, senior vice-president of Bangladesh Inland Waterways (passenger carriers’) Association.
Security has been beefed up at all the bus terminals, Kamalapur Railway Station and Sadarghat launch terminal to maintain law and order.
-With The Daily Star input
