Braving all sorts of odds people continued leaving the city on Friday to celeberate the holy Eid-ul-Adha in their village homes. City’s bus and launch terminals and railway stations witnessed huge crowd as the passengers were seen desperate to travel. Howerver, sufferings to the homebound holiday makers had reached to its peak on Friday due to long tailbacks on some major highways and slow speed of vehicles, as well as disruption in train schedules.
Besides, the railway communications with the Nortern and the North-Western districts remained suspended for two and a half hours after a train was derailed on Bangabandhu Bridge. Roads Passengers travelling on highways on inter-city coaches experienced untold sufferings as hundreds of vehicles got stuck on Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Mymensingh highway for hours since early hours on Friday.
According to witnesses, a 70-kilometre long tailback was created on Dhaka-Tangail highway stretching from Gazipur to Bangabandhu Bridge in Tangail. It took more than six hours to reach Tangail bypass from Chandra in Gazipur. Police said heavy pressure of out-going vehicles from the capital as well as the sorry state of roads were responsible for the congestion and sufferings to the people.
However, Road, Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Qader on Friday claimed that there was no problem for the home bound people in their journey by highways. He made the remarks while visiting capital’s Gabtoli bus terminal in the morning. Obaidul Qader, also the General Secretary of ruling Bangladesh Awami League, said, there were some problems in ferry services at Daulatdia and Paturia Ghats due to strong current in the river Padma. But, the situation has been improved, he added.
Railway
Almost all the intercity trains on different routes in north-western regions of the country were delayed by up to five hours intensifying sufferings to thousands of people. Due to train schedule disrupton, neither any train could leave Dhaka on time nor any one could arrive here from different ends across the country.
In such a situation, hundreds of passengers, including children and women, had to remain waiting at capital’s Kamalapur, Tejgaon and Airport railway stations for hours.
According to sources, the Rajshahi bound Dhumketu Express, which was scheduled to leave Kamalapur Railway station at 6am, arrived here after 10:15am and left for Rajshahi after 10:40am. Similarly, the Chilahati bound Neelsagar Express, which was scheduled to leave at 8 in the morning, left Dhaka after 11:00am. The Rangpur bound Rangpur Express was scheduled to leave Dhaka at 9:00am, but it could leave after five hours at 2:00pm.
In the same manner, Panchagarh-bound Ekota Express was delayed by one and a half hours, while the Rajshahi-bound Silk City Express, Banolata Express, Padma Express and Khulna bound Sundarban Express were also delayed by three hours, Chitra Express by one hour and Lalmonirhat bound Eid special train Lalmoni express by three hours.
Witnesses said that all the compartments and roofs of all the trains were seen crowded due to shortages of capacity to accommodate all the passengers. Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan on Friday said, trains on different routes were being delayed as flood affected train lines could not be repaired to their full extent.A total of 55 trains, including three Eid special trains left Kamalapur Railway Station on Friday for different destinations across the country.
Launch
The largest passenger boat terminal Sadarghat Launch terminal remained overcrowded with thousands of passengers waiting since early on Friday. Besides, all the launches heading for Barishal, Bhola, Barguna, Pirojpur, Patuakhali and Chandpur were already found busy occupieng spaces to travel.with additional number of passengers.
Witnesses said although passengers on different routes had started gathering at the terminal since the morning, most of the launches left Dhaka in the evening. Passengers had arrived at the launch terminal earlier to get tickets of spaces in launches. Besides, almost all of them had to face difficulties to get into the launches due to heavy pressure with huge number of additional passengers.
On the other hand, a number of passengers alleged that launch owners and employees made delay to leave Sadarghat intentionally to get additional number of passengers. However, officials of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Sadarghat denied the allegation. Abdur Rahman, in-charge of Sadarghat terminal, said the Sadarghat terminal has a total of 11 pontoones with capacity to accommodate 31 launches at a time.
