Rush for home begins

The journey home to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha is gaining momentum, with moderate numbers of passengers traveling from the capital to various destinations across the country via rail, road, and waterways.

Wednesday’s travel by train was nearly trouble-free, with a tolerable delay of the scheduled trains, whereas travel by road to some destinations was difficult due to traffic congestion at exit points.

Meanwhile, passengers on launches experienced less hassle compared to the Eid rush of the previous years.

On the second day of the journey home to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha, six outbound trains ran late, up to 50 minutes, to their destinations from the Kamalapur Railway Station till 12 noon. These trains each had a moderate number of passengers. However, the number of passengers increased with time.

The passengers were happy as the trains ran almost on schedule. The Kamalapur Railway Station authorities too claimed that the delay was negligible.

Station officials said that the Jamalpur Express was 15 minutes late, and the Kishoreganj Express and the Jayantika Express were each 30 minutes late. The first train that ran late on Wednesday morning was the Rangpur Express, which left the station at around 10am instead of 9:10am. But other trains, including Dhumketu Express, Sonar Bangla Express, Nisagar Express, Maganagar Provati, Tista Express, Sundarban Express, and Mohua Commuter, ran almost on time.

Kamalapur Railway Station Manager Md Masud Sarwar said a total of 18 trains left the station till 12 noon. They could not operate the Rangpur Express on time as it reached the station 50 minutes late.

“This is not a schedule collapse but an operational delay,” he said.

He assumed that more than 60,000 passengers would leave the capital on 37 trains on the day.

In order to prevent a schedule collapse from Kamalapur Station for the outbound journey, seven inbound trains were ordered by the authorities to not stop at the airport station.

In the meantime, a 10-kilometer traffic jam at Sonargaon in Narayanganj on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway caused suffering among the holidaymakers, particularly children and the elderly. Many people were seen walking instead of waiting for cars in the traffic.

According to our correspondent’s reports, there was a long tailback from Madanpur to Mograpara in Sonargaon on Wednesday afternoon. In addition, slow-moving vehicles were seen traveling from Mograpara to Meghnaghat. As the educational institutions went into vacation, people started their journeys on Tuesday afternoon to avoid congestion.

Sumon Sikder, a passenger, said that his office would go on vacation starting on Friday, but he was sending his family members on Wednesday. “The highway was congested when I arrived, though. I’m not sure whether I should send the family to the village today.”

Shah Alom, a driver of Hanif Paribahan bus, said he started with passengers around 12 noon but after one hour he could not reach Madanpur. From the Shimrail intersection, it was taking more than one and a half hours to reach Mograpara.

Kanchpur Highway police OC Nobir Hossain told reporters that the traffic congestion was created by the extra pressure of vehicles. “We are working to tackle the situation.”

In another development, Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in a notification on Wednesday urged holidaymakers to avoid the Dhaka-Ashulia road as there had been huge traffic congestion there since the morning due to rain.

Meanwhile, with just days remaining till the ban on inter-district motorcycle movement comes into effect, the Paturia-Daulatdia ferry terminal and the Mawa ferry terminal saw a huge rush of bikes on Wednesday.

The bikers had less trouble crossing Padma Bridge by ferry because there were fewer buses and other vehicles on the route as a result of the Padma Bridge.

The government on Sunday banned inter-district travel for motorcycles for seven days during the Eid-ul-Azha holiday.

The latest move follows a recent ban on motorcycles from using the Padma Bridge and Dhaka-Mawa expressway, which the government says is unlikely to be lifted before Eid.