People have started returning to the capital Dhaka after celebrating Eid-ul-Azha with their families and relatives in different parts of the country.
Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals of Muslims, was celebrated across Bangladesh on June 29.
The Eid holidaymakers were arriving in the city by bus, train and launch.
Meanwhile, there were reports of the suffering of passengers in the northern region due to continuous rain and traffic congestion on the highway. However, there were no such reports of suffering in the south, south-east and north-east regions of the country.
Faisal Hossain, a resident of Faridpur, reached Dhaka’s Sayedabad with his family on Saturday. “Since my office resumes tomorrow [Sunday], I returned to Dhaka today [Saturday] with my family. There was no traffic jam on the road and no suffering as well.”
There were media reports that passengers heading to Dinajpur, Rangpur, Bogura, Rajshahi and Pabna had to wait for 14 to 30 hours on the road to reach their destinations before Eid.
In the case of a return, passengers and transport insiders said the movement of Dhaka-bound vehicles has become difficult due to rain which caused their pace slower, creating queues of traffic on the road and thus taking extra time to reach the capital.
On the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha, June 28, 29 and 30 were scheduled holidays. But as per the recommendation of the Cabinet Committee on Law and Order, the government extended the holidays by a day and declared June 27 as a public holiday to ensure a smooth Eid journey.
As a result, there were four days off from June 27 to June 30 and the next day (July 1) was Saturday, a weekly holiday.
The government offices, banks and other institutions will resume today after the five-day vacation of Eid-ul-Azha.
According to the media reports, around eight million people left the capital to share the joy of Eid with their relatives at their ancestral homes.
More than 7.5 million SIM users left Dhaka in three days from June 27 to June 29, while over 2.67 million SIM users entered Dhaka during the same period, Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said in a Facebook post on Friday.
