Holidaymakers suffer on return trip to Dhaka

Staff Correspondent

Thousands of holidaymakers suffered on their way back to Dhaka on Friday from ancestral homes after celebrating Eid-ul-Azha as the government imposed a 14-day ‘strict lockdown’ from the morning.

Children, women and aged persons along with others were seen walking to reach their destinations in Dhaka after landing in different terminals.

Commuters at the Gabtoli Inter-district Bus Terminal said that they were facing trouble as their vehicles reached Dhaka late due to congestion in the Padma River crossing while public transport remained shut due to fresh lockdown imposed from Friday 6:00 am.

Sadiqur Rahman, who returned to Dhaka at 11:00 am on Friday with his family from Kaliganj in Jhenaidah after celebrating Eid, told The Business Post that he immensely suffered from the lack of public transport.

“Is it possible to walk carrying three bags of 30-40kg weight?” said Sadique, who was waiting for a rickshaw at Gabtoli upon his arrival in the capital.

“I was stuck in a jam for six hours at Doulatdia-Paturia river crossing,” he said, adding that due to the delay that he could not reach Dhaka on time like thousand others.

He said that bus dropped him at Amin Bazar just opposite the Gabtoli Bridge in the capital as the police stopped the bus putting a barricade there.

He said that the bus charged him Tk 1,100 which is more than double.

Halima Khatun, 55-year-old housewife who was returning with her family members from her village in Faridpur, said that she tried to rent a rickshaw van but the van puller demanded Tk 2,500 to reach her residence at Mirpur-11.

She said that from the village she carried some meat of their sacrificial animal but the meat decomposed as she could not reach house after travelling 14 hours due to traffic jam on roads and now for the lack of transport.

“If we got one more day to return, everyone could have returned safely maintaining health guidelines,” she said.

Shameem Sheikh, who landed at Sadarghat after celebrating Eid with their near and dear ones, was taking rest on a footpath at Gulistan on his way back home.

He said, “From Barishal we reached Dhaka by launch which reached the terminal in the morning but we couldn’t manage any vehicle.”

Like Shameem, Halima and Sadique, thousands of people suffered for public transport at Gabtoli, Jatrabari and Mohakhali bus terminals and Sadarghat Launch Terminal on Friday.

They said that they were compelled to travel violating health guidelines on buses and launches as a huge number of passengers rushed at a time.

Visiting city streets, the police were seen restricting public movement at different places including Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Mohammadpur, Mirpur, Mazar Road and Tejgaon of the city.

All main roads and lanes were seen free from public transports. Some rickshaws were seen carrying the returnees to Dhaka.

The government declared a strict lockdown from July 23 to August 5 to combat the spike in the spread of coronavirus.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University Hospital former vice-chancellor Professor Nazrul Islam said that the Covid-19 spread might see more spikes due to violation of health guidelines in the time of Eid-ul-Azha.

He said that the government should have made all preparations to tackle any untoward situation.