The post Eid holiday of Sundarbans forest employees cancelled appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The department has also asked to intensify patrolling inside the Sundarbans, reports our Bagerhat correspondent.
Mohammad Belayet Hossain, divisional forest officer (DFO) of the Eastern Forest Department of the Sundarbans, said criminals always increase their activities inside the Sundarbans on various events and festivals, including the Eids.
Therefore, the forest department issues warnings for its staff of the Sundarbans ahead of the Eids, the official said.
But this time, it cancelled Eid holiday of all the officials, rangers and other employees, he added.
The surveillance has been beefed up to protect the wild life and nature of the Sundarbans, the forest officials mentioned.
– With The Daily Star input
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]]>The post Banks to remain open on April 30 appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>In 2022, the number of banking transactions have increased substantially year-on-year, which has also fuelled cash withdrawals and deposits with banks, according to a BB notice.
Clients will be able to do banking between 9.30am and 1pm on Saturday, after which bankers have to complete their relevant work by 2.30pm.
In addition, the central bank asked banks to keep their selective branches open on Friday (tomorrow) to facilitate payment of salaries, wages and festival allowances to garment workers.
The branches located in the Dhaka city, Ashulia, Savar, Tongi, Gazipur, Bhaluka, Narayanganj and Chattogram will have to remain open.
The garment factory owners will have to pay salaries, wages and festival allowances for Eid-ul-Fitr to their workers in time.
On Friday, clients will be allowed to settle their banking transaction between 9.30am and 12.30pm in the areas, after which bankers will be permitted to complete their relevant operations by 3pm.
Eid-ul-Fitr, the largest religious festival of the Muslims, is scheduled to be celebrated either on May 2 or 3 depending on the sighting of the moon.
– With The Daily Star input
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]]>The post Eid exodus picks up momentum appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Torrential rain since early yesterday morning put many heading home for the Eid holidays in trouble getting to bus, train and launch terminals in the capital.
The perennial congestion and the usual chaos of Dhaka were, however, easing off despite waterlogging and tailbacks on some thoroughfares. Streets around shopping malls were crammed with vehicles, causing home goers even more pain.
The city’s bus, train and launch terminals saw increased flow of passengers. The rush of holidaymakers would intensify even further from today, the last working day before the Eid, which would either be on Saturday or Sunday.
Transport operators said the mad rush would begin tonight and continue until the night before Eid.
Many would take risks — travelling unsafely — during their journey home to celebrate Eid with their near and dear ones.
Transport operators said people had started leaving the capital a few days early to avoid hassles during late rush. Many working people had taken a day off to go home early and they had been leaving since Tuesday night.
Yesterday, people set off for terminals but had to face difficulty reaching there due to rain. Many were soaked but did not have to deal with any hassles at the terminals.
They did face congestions on Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Tangail highways and waterlogging on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway.
A truck stationary with a punctured tyre on the single carriageway Meghna-Gumti bridge caused a jam on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway around 5:00am. The truck was towed away in 30 minutes but by then the damage was done. The queue of vehicles was 22km long on both sides of the bridge.
The traffic jam was still there when this report was filed yesterday evening.
People who left Dhaka in the morning for Comilla, Feni, Chittagong and other south-eastern districts were stuck in the jam.
Heavy rain caused waterlogging at some places on the Tongi-Joydevpur road on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway, disrupting traffic.
Potholes had developed on many roads, causing officials of Roads and Highways Department to be concerned.
Traffic movement on the Dhaka-Tangail highway slowed down yesterday due to increased number of vehicles leaving the capital for northern districts.
Police said the onrush of vehicles increased since Tuesday night and the trend was likely to continue.
Our Tangail correspondent said vehicles were moving in queue and slowly on the 65km long Chandra-Bangabandhu Bridge stretch of the road.
Abul Kalam, president of bus owners’ association at Mohakhali Bus Terminal, said passengers have begun to leave Dhaka in large numbers. “There would have been more passengers, had there been no rain,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Mosharaf Hossain, Hanif Paribahan general manager, claimed that even though the rush of passengers had increased, they were not facing any problems as they had adequate number of buses in reserve.
Manager Dinesh Kumer of Shyamoli Paribahan expects the pressure of passengers to increase more today
A large number of passengers were also seen at the Kamalapur Railway Station and the Sadarghat Launch Terminal. Both trains and launches were crowded.
-With The Daily Star Input
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]]>The post Auto-rickshaws, taxicabs drivers take excessive fares appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Drivers argue that due to a rise in daily deposits and an unwillingness of police and owners, they have to charge extra fares from commuters.
Mohammad Anisul Haque, a traveller who reached Kamlapur railway station in Dhaka from Naokhali on Friday, said that he had to pay Tk 200 for an auto-rickshaw to go to Babubazar.
‘The fare is normally Tk 100, but today drivers are even asking for over Tk 250,’ he added.
Another passenger at Kamlapur railway station, Shariful Haque, said the auto-rickshaw drivers asked for Tk 200 to go to Indira Road, when the fare was normally Tk 100 to Tk 120.
This correspondent found that there were about 40 auto-rickshaws in front of the railway station which had no working metres.
Saiful Alam, a Dhanmondi resident, took a taxicab from Shahjanapur to reach Zigatola and paid Tk 250 when the fare was normally Tk 150 to Tk 200.
Dhaka Metropolitan CNG, Auto-Rickshaw and Mishuk Drivers Union general secretary Shakhawat Hossian Dulal told New Age that there should be a tri-party monitoring cell by the representatives of the government, CNG auto-rickshaws’ owners and drivers.
‘If there is such a cell, the owners would collect the government fixed daily deposit from the drivers,’ he said.
He also said that the private auto-rickshaws’ owners were painting their vehicles to earn extra money which have no metres.
‘It is true that drivers are collecting excessive fares from commuters as they are helpless’.
Dhaka Metropolitan Taxicab Drivers Union general secretary, SM Tarek Mahmud also admitted that taxicab drivers were collecting extra fares from commuters.
The owners were taking Tk 1,500 from the taxicab drivers per day which compelled them to collect extra fares, he added.
Meanwhile, the Dhaka Metropolitan CNG Auto Rickshaw Business Owners Association general secretary, Mohammad Faridul Islam Khasru, denied the complaint.
‘We are just collecting the deposit,’ he said, adding ‘If someone says so, please ask him to lodge a complaint against us.’
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Returnees’ rush expected on Friday and Saturday appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>The Bangladesh Railway’s divisional railway manager (Dhaka), Sardar Shahzad Ali, told New Age on Wednesday that the rush of the returning people would begin from Friday evening and continue through Saturday.
Shahzad Ali said that on Eid day, two special trains plied the Mymensingh-Kishoreganj-Mymensingh and Bhairab-Kishoreganj-Bhairab routes to help people to attend the Eid prayers at Sholakia, where the country’s largest Eid congregation was held.
Many people in Rajshahi were not getting tickets of various intercity trains to return to Dhaka.
The railway operation department’s assistant director, Saidur Rahman, said that the railway’s return tickets to Dhaka were sold out by August 31.
‘So if the people want to come back to Dhaka they will have to buy standing tickets,’ he said, and added that standing tickets would not be available in the First Class or AC coaches.
According to the railway authorities, 150 new and repaired coaches joined the existing fleet on August 14.
The Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation added 130 buses to its fleet a week ahead of the Eid to facilitate the movement of passengers.
The corporation’s director (administration and operation), SM Faisal Alam, said that the rush of returnees would start from Thursday (today).
Shyamoli Paribahan’s Gabotli branch’s manager, Mohammad Alamgir Kabir, told New Age on Wednesday that a few people came back to Dhaka from Bogra, Naogaon, Rangpur, Dinajpur, Pabna, Meherpur, Chittagong, and Kolkata.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Frenetic departure from city on appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Passengers, mostly garment workers from Savar, Ashulia and Gazipur, headed home in overcrowded buses, many of them riding on the roofs.
Eid-ul-Fitr will be celebrated either on August 19 or on August 20 depending on sighting of the moon.
Three inter-district bus
terminals in the city – Gabtali, Mahakhali and Sayedabad – and the Sadarghat launch terminal remained crowded with passengers leaving the city.
The passengers alleged that the bus operators were still charging extra fare while missing their schedules causing further sufferings to the home-bound people.
Passengers were seen riding on the roofs of the overcrowded trains that left Kamalapur station on Friday, at every other station they stopped.
Many of the 42 trains, especially those bound for the northern districts, were late by two to seven hours, officials said.
Traffic remained halted for about two hours from 6:30am on Dhaka-Tangail highway after a bus went out of order at Mirzapur in Tangail. Passengers remained trapped in a 30-km tailback stretching from Raipur to Eliotganj in Daudkandi on the Dhaka Chittagong highway for about six hours.
Overnight rain slowed the movement of traffic on the stretch of highway from Gazipur to Tangail, reports New Age correspondent in Gazipur.
Tofazzel Hossain Liton, a dyeing factory employee, told New Age that he had travelled to Sirajganj from Gazipur on the rooftop of a bus as there was no room inside. ‘It took him over six hours to reach Sirajganj, almost double of the normal time, as there was traffic congestion on the road,’ he said over telephone.
‘I bought a bus ticket from Soukhin Paribahan for Tk 450, Tk 150 more than the normal fare. The bus was scheduled to leave Gabtali at 3:00pm,but it was delayed by two hours, leaving the terminal at around 5:00pm,’ said Khulna-bound passenger Md Riazul Islam.
Many passengers said that transport operators were using rundown buses on different routes.
Most of the launches that left Sadarghat terminal were overcrowded, carrying passengers even on the top-most deck. But most of them left the terminal ahead of schedule, said officials of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority.
Nearly 100 launches left the terminal for 39 destinations in the southern region till 8:00pm, they said.
-With New Age input
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]]>The post Rush for home begins today appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>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
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]]>The post Lock houses for security appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
]]>Residents of Dhaka city, before going on Eid holiday, should lock their houses, Home Minister Shahara Khatun said yesterday. She added that the government had been
taking security measures, though.
There is concern over security during the Eid vacation as many people leave Dhaka before the celebrations, she said.
“That is why those who leave the city should ensure that they have properly locked their houses.”
She made the remarks at the secretariat following a meeting on the supply of essentials and security measures during the Eid holidays. State Minister for Home Shamsul
Hoque Tuku, Home Secretary C Q K Mustaq Ahmed, Inspector General of Police Hassan Mahmood Khandker and Mohammad Helal Uddin, director of the Federation of Bangladesh
Chambers of Commerce and Industry, were present.
Noting that there was no news of extortion and mugging ahead of Eid, the minister said overall conditions in the country were very good now because of what she called
well-maintained law and order.
She, however, acknowledged the poor condition of the roads. There was no other issue in the country except that of vulnerable road conditions, she added.
Talking about government measures to ensure security, the home minister said two thousand Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) personnel were patrolling the city along with
policemen. Closed circuit cameras had been set up at Sayedabad, Kamalapur, Gabtali and Mohakhali bus terminals in the capital to monitor activities on the roads so
that criminals could not escape.
On the prices of essentials, Shahara said the market of essentials was stable now and that 14 monitoring teams of the commerce ministry were working toward ensuring
that the stability remained in place.
Dhaka will take on an unusually vacant appearance for a long time as government officials and employees of private companies enjoy non-stop holidays from August 15 to
August 21 due to National Mourning Day, Shab-e-Qadr and Eid-ul-Fitr festival.
-With The Daily Star input
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]]>The post Homebound trips turn nightmare appeared first on Dhaka Mirror.
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Those who came out smiling in the struggle to get bus tickets to go home for Eid now endure more as travel time to most destinations outside Dhaka has doubled with the mad rush home getting into its stride.However, battered roads, congested highways and delayed ferries in this riverine nation still cannot deter people wishing to spend Eid with their families.
Thousands travelling in this holiday season have to sit tight in buses on highways with almost no access to toilets, food, and no estimated time of arrival or departure of buses in most cases.
Some have to go through more than others as unfit vehicles, which have been patched up for service for the Eid rush, breakdown putting its passengers’ travel plans into disarray and creating traffic jams on our rather narrow highways. The appalling road conditions also contribute to vehicle breakdowns.
The problems are further aggravated at ferry terminals where buses spend hours every day before they can board a ferry to cross rivers.
However, even though most ferry terminals have no public toilets, fasting people stuck there are a little better off as they do have access to food for sehri and iftar.
Most are not that lucky, they get stuck in congestion/traffic jams in the middle of nowhere with no access to food, toilet or the opportunity to stretch their legs. Women and children suffer the most.
Tasmia Osman Raqa, who wishes to be a freshman at a university, started her journey from Syedabad around 10:40am for Feni. Her bus did not even get past Comilla Cantonment after seven hours, which is less than 100km from Dhaka.
“Usually, it takes three hours to reach Feni from Dhaka, but in seven hours I travelled only two-thirds my journey,” she said over the telephone.
Lutfor Rahman, a businessman heading for Kurigram with his wife and two children, narrated his plight. He said having paid Tk 200 on top of the prices per ticket, they left Dhaka around 11:30pm Thursday. “Hundreds of buses and trucks, we were stuck for hours in a 20km tailback on the highway. There was no water and no food for thousands of people desperate to have something for sehri. Women and children were the worst sufferers with no toilets. It’s a nightmare,” he said.
Zakir Hossain, a fourth-year student of United University travelling to Satkhira from Dhaka, said he had to spend around two hours at Paturia Ferry Terminal to board a ferry and he considers himself rather lucky.
“The longest delay was in Paturia, otherwise there was not much traffic after we crossed the river.” He was speaking to The Daily Star via telephone around 5:00pm from Jhikargachha of Jessore, around 40km from his house. His bus left Dhaka around 7:45am.
“We just heard from people of the bus service that all other buses of this service provider which started from Dhaka later than ours got stuck for hours at the ferry terminal,” Hossain added. Many buses had to wait three to four hours to board a ferry.
Thousands get stuck on Dhaka-Aricha highway for hours either for congestion or unavailability of ferries at Paturia terminal.
At Mawa ferry terminal more than 300 vehicles wait in a queue to cross the Padma since yesterday morning, some get across while others join the queue, said sources in Mawa. “Ferries have difficulty navigating through the narrow and shallow channels of the Padma, last night ferry service was suspended for six hours due to the channel becoming unusable,” said AS Ashiquzzaman, assistant general manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation. A total of 16 ferries are now in operation, he added.
Going to the northeast by a bus is not any easier. A four to four-and-a-half-hours journey to Sylhet has now doubled. “We faced a huge tailback near Kanchpur Bridge in Narayanganj and Bhairab on the way to Sylhet,” said Anwar Hossain, a businessman, who started from the capital at 6:30am and reached Sylhet around 2:30pm.
Businessman Shamsuddin Miah, 45, of Narandia in Kalihati upazila in Tangail said he along with his three-member family started from Mohakhali in the capital around 11:00am on a bus but they reached Tangail six hours later due to tailbacks and poor road conditions on Dhaka-Tangail highway. Usually it is a three-hour journey.
Bus service operators had earlier suspended their service on the highway due to poor road conditions.
Mohammad Taohid, a sales manager of Saudia Paribahan (bus service provider) said now buses are three to four hours late in reaching Chittagong from Dhaka due to gridlock, jams and dilapidated condition of the highway.
Romesh Chandra Ghosh, managing director of Shyamoli Paribahan, one of the largest bus service providers in the country with 400 buses in its fleet, said all his buses are taking around double the usual time to reach their destinations. “On an average, it is taking about eight to nine hours to cover 300km,” he said.
“On Dhaka-Chittagong highway traffic jams start from Daudkandi and stretch up to Sitakunda. Buses going towards the northern part of the country are facing up to 20km-long queues from Chandra in Gazipur,” he added.
“With the slightest rainfall in the coming days, the situation will deteriorate that means more time loss on the roads and more misery,” said Ghosh, also vice-president of the Bangladesh Bus Truck Owners’ Association.
Kazi Mizanur Rahman, a manager of Hanif Paribahan, another large bus service provider, said many of its inter-district buses leaving Dhaka are being late for their return trip as they reach their destinations late. He said this has turned their schedules upside down.
Asfiquzzaman Akhter, Senior Superintendent of Highway Police (Gazipur Range) who visited Konabari, Chandra, Savar, Nabinagar and Bipile, yesterday said traffic was very slow due to bad roads.
Communications Minister Syed Abul Hossain, however, claimed that the slow traffic is usual during Eid. “There is no problem in traffic movement as we have already repaired 90 percent of the damaged roads and highways,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.
Our correspondents from Tangail, Mymensingh, Munshiganj, Sylhet, Chittagong, Dinajpur and Manikganj contributed to this report.
Courtesy of The Daily Star
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