The travel arrangements for holidaymakers going home during the Eid vacation this time look far below the requirements, sources concerned said.
The ongoing work on the four-lane Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Chattogram highways and the under-construction flyover on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway may also spell trouble for both passengers and transport operators, insiders said.
According to Bangladesh Passengers' Welfare Association (BPWA), about 9.0 million (90 lakh) people are expected to leave Dhaka ahead of Eid.
Of them, 80 per cent will travel by buses and other vehicles, 2.5 per cent by trains, 17 per cent by river vessels and 0.4 per cent by air.
Both the public and private sectors have the capacity to carry only 40 per cent of passengers, Mozammel Haque Chowdhury, secretary general of BPWA, told the FE.
He said the city's exit points like Gabtoli, Sayedabad, Mohakhali, Jatrabari, Sadarghat and Kamalapur Railway Station witness, on an average, a rush of more than 2.2 million people every day three days ahead of Eid.
The Bangladesh Railway (BR) has the capacity to carry only 23,500 passengers a day ahead of Eid, but there is a demand for more than 1.0 million tickets.
The carrying capacity of trains increased by 10 per cent in last ten years.
The number of passengers also went up by more than 120 per cent during the period.
He said launches and steamers can carry only 0.15 million people during the vacation when more than 2.0 million people opt for such journey.
According to two bus owners' associations at Gabtoli, Sayedabad, Mohakhali and Fulbaria bus terminals, they have the capacity to carry only 1.0 million people a day.
There is a rush of a minimum of 2.5 million people a day before the festival.
"The number of passengers goes up sharply before Eid," said Faruque Talukder Sohel, president of Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners' Association (BBTOA).
This puts extra pressure on the operators tackling the situation, he added.
He said traffic congestion on highways also causes immense sufferings to home-goers.
"We saw nagging jams on the highways in the past," he stated.
He said unfit vehicles running on roads and highways are also creating traffic jams.
Md Shafique, General Manager of Nabil Paribahan, a leading bus operator of Rangpur division, told the FE that his company will operate 150 buses ahead of the Eid festival.
They have a total of 6,000 tickets for each day, but more than 0.1 million people are looking for those, he said.
Palash Ghosh, director at Shyamoli Paribahan, pointed out that it would be difficult for the authority to manage traffic on both Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Chattogram highways.
The work on the two four-lane highways is underway, he added.
He also said Sylhet-bound passengers also might face the same problem due to the ongoing construction work on a flyover at Bhulta on the Dhaka-Sylhet highway.
Such a situation might intensify the sufferings of home-goers, he added.
He said buses are now taking 6-10 hours more to reach different destinations.
Despite having lack of travel arrangements, government officials said they were making efforts to give some sort of relief to holidaymakers during their Eid journey.
BR Director General Amzad Hossain said they were trying their best to deal with the issue. They increased the number of trains and coaches to carry a large number of passengers.
He said 130 new coaches will be added to the railway fleet before Eid.
He said passengers prefer trains to avoid traffic congestion on the highways.
It is putting an extra pressure on the railways, he said.
The BR head, however, admitted that the number of passengers was increasing faster than the capacity of trains.
Transport expert Prof Mahbub Alam Talukder told the FE that waterways and railways could be two easier and economically-viable transportation modes in the country.
But the highway-based transportation system, which covers more than 80 per cent of travels, is creating a hassle for the passengers for lack of necessary roads, he said.
DIG of Highway Police Md Humayun Kabir said they took special steps for easing traffic on the country's three key highways -Dhaka-Chattogram, Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail.
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