Holidaymakers battle on way back to city

 Sohel Ahmed works in a private office in Motijheel area of the city. He went to his village home in Barisal to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with his near and dear ones after much ordeal on road two days before the occasion.

Mr Sohel left his village home Friday at 7:00 in the morning for Dhaka to attend office today (Saturday) and spent about seven hours to reach his destination instead of a usual five hours journey.

"I travelled by bus from Barisal to Mawa, then took a ride on a speed boat up to Kawrakandi and again boarded a BRTC bus. There were irregularities everywhere, from bus schedules to extra fare," said Mr Sohel.

He said he preferred a rather fragmented journey as there was huge rush on launch.

Chief executive officer (CEO) of Well Group Syed Nurul Islam, who went to Chittagong to celebrate Eid with family members, will start for Dhaka at 11:00 pm with a seven-member group on the last flight of Bangladesh Biman from the port city as all his factories and business units will resume operation from today.

"I prefer Biman at my relaxed time because the aircraft is large and I can save time. I have been avoiding travel on Dhaka-Chittagong highway for the past eight years as the journey has become very uncertain," Mr Islam told the FE over phone.

Like Mr Sohel and Mr Islam, thousands of the city dwellers have started returning to the capital after celebrating the big religious festivals of the Muslims and Hindus at village homes as most of the private, semi-government offices and factories will open today. The government offices will, however, open tomorrow.

During this Eid, people had to suffer a lot on the roads and trains during their journey home before Eid as there was extra pressure of people because two festivals were celebrated almost at the same time. The return journey was relatively comfortable as there was a long vacation and people came in a rather scattered way.

Although city's bus terminals and railway stations witnessed a less crowd, the Sadarghat launch terminal was teeming with passengers arriving here defying risks associated with the journey. Almost all the launches carried extra passengers as many of the working people were in a mad rush to return to the city to start office.

Same scene was noticed in case of some of the passenger trains from North Bengal which carried extra passengers at high risk. Also, most of the trains missed schedules and charged extra fares, alleged some passengers.

On the other hand, bus terminals were yet to see such rush in the evening of Friday.  

Arifur Rahman, an executive of Keya Paribahan at Gabtoli Bus Terminal, told the FE Friday that out of the 36 buses from North Bengal, some 20 were to arrive by the late evening carrying maximum passengers while 16 were on the way to the capital during day-time.

He said the pressure of their passengers will mount from today and will continue until 14th of this month.

Although people, especially of the working class, have started pouring into the capital since Thursday, the city is still free from rush, traffic jam, crowd and hustle-bustle. It is likely to get its usual look by the end of this week.

Kamrul Islam, assistant general manager (marketing support and public relations) of United Airways, said all their regular return flights were full since one day after Eid and there was no extra flight during this Eid. This trend will continue on all their routes of Dhaka-Jessore, Dhaka-Rajshahi, Dhaka-Syedpur, Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Cox's Bazar and Dhaka-Sylhet until end of this week.

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