Daylong heavy rainfall on Thursday added miseries to thousands of holidaymakers on their way home by bus, train and launch. But the misery failed to stop the holidaymakers from their journey to village homes. The homebound people were seen rushing to different bus, train and launch terminals in the capital and elsewhere for their destinations across the country to celebrate the holy Eid-ul-Adha on August 12.
During random visits, all the bus, launch and railway terminals at different parts of the capital were found overcrowded by thousands of home going people. Apart from the rainfall, disruption in train schedules and delay in the arrival of buses added extra miseries to a large number of home goers. According to sources, floods in two phases in recent past have caused serious damage to a large portion of roads and railway tracks. Besides, the sorry state of the roads and railway tracks is responsible for the disruption of train schedules and delay in the arrivals of buses as buses and trains are forced to run slowly.
Mohammad Aminul Haq, Manager of Kamalapur Railway Station, said, they are trying their best to maintain schedules. He, however, said, disruption in train schedules is responsible for carrying of extra passengers. Uploading and unloading of additional passengers at different stations requires extra time, he added.
According to officials of the Directorate of Roads and Highways (R&HD) and Bangladesh Railway (BR), the recent flood and heavy rainfall had damaged at least 701 kilometres of roads and 350 kilometres of railway tracks in 22 districts. As a result, at least 10 railway routes have been changed as those routes had gone out of order.
Districts in which roads were damaged severely include Kurigram, Sirajganj, Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Kishorganj, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Moulavibazar, Hobiganj and Chattogram. A total of 23 teams are active for monitoring of the repairing works. The Roads & Highway Authority (R&HD) and Bangladesh Railway officials, however, said they are trying their best to overcome the situation through repairing the damaged roads and rail tracks.
