FE Report
A good number of people started leaving the capital from Friday morning to observe the Holy Eid-ul-Azha with their near and dear ones at village homes.
Family members, especially wives, children, students and elderly ones were going earlier to avoid the possible journey-related hassles on September 22 and September 24, travellers said.
The Eid will be celebrated on September 25.
Visiting the Kamalapur Railway Station (KRS) and private bus counters of Nabil Paribahan, Hanif Enterprise, Shyamoli, SR Paribahan and Eagle Paribahan in Shyamoli, Kallyanpur and Gabtoli areas on Friday the FE found hundreds of home-goers to be in a hurry with their belongings.
Women, children and students were the majority of the passengers on the day.
Md Nurannabi, a student of Jagannath University, told the FE on Friday at Nabil Paribahan, Majhar Road counter that their campus has been vacated.
"I'm going today while most of my friends will leave within Saturday," said Nurannabi, a Dinajpur inhabitant.
"We are going earlier as we don't want to fall in a traffic trap," he said.
Md Tamzid-bin-Hasan, a senior merchandiser of a buying house, came to SR Paribahan counter at Kallyanpur on Friday morning to see off his wife and two sons who were going to Peerganj in Rangpur to celebrate the Eid.
He said the hassles of the journey may be unbearable this Eid as there is only a three-day holiday.
"I'm suspecting that the condition will be worst on September 23 and 24 as most service-holders will leave the city on those days."
"So, I'm sending my family earlier to ensure a safer journey," he said.
However, bus services from September 17 (Thursday) were being counted as Eid buses for Rangpur, Rajshahi and Khulna divisions.
Md Anisur Rahman, counter manager of Hanif Paribahan, College Gate told the FE that the number of travellers started to increase significantly from Thursday evening compared to that of normal days.
He said the rush of passengers increased severely from Friday morning.
Meanwhile, hundreds of people who opt to leave the city one or two days ahead of Eid were still moving from bus counters to Kamalapur Rail Station (KRS) in search of tickets.
The KRS witnessed the highest crowd this year on Friday as more than 50,000 people got involved in a fight for getting tickets for September 23.
Most of the ticket seekers returned empty-handed as availability of tickets was much less against the demand.
KRS Manager Sitangshu Chakravarty said only 9,500 tickets were available for the commoners in 17 counters of the station against a presence of 50,000.
Hundreds of people also were seen waiting to secure the nearest position in the queue for September 24 tickets which will be given today (Saturday).
Visiting the KRS at Friday noon the FE found that the number of home-goers by railway also started increasing from the day.
Even many were seen sitting on the train rooftop taking risk.
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