A good number of people returned to the capital Dhaka on Friday after celebrating Eid-ul-Azha in their village homes.
Rail stations, and bus and launch terminals witnessed a significant number of the returnees on the day.
Private vehicles, public transports, CNG-auto rickshaws, rickshaws and motorbikes were seen carrying the returnees to different destinations inside the city from Kamalapur Railway Station, Mohakhali, Sayedabad and Gabtoli bus terminals as well as Sadarghat launch terminal.
Eid-ul-Azha, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims, was celebrated in the county on July 10 last.
This year, the government employees got a four-day holiday at a stretch as July 8-9 (Friday and Saturday) were weekly holidays while July 10-11 (Sunday and Monday) were public holidays for Eid-ul-Azha.
Government, semi-government and private offices, including banks and financial institutions, reopened on 12 July (Tuesday) after the festival.
But there was a low presence of employees at the public and private offices as many of them took leave for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday last.
Visiting Kamalapur Railway Station, Dhaka River Port Terminal at Sadarghat, and Sayedabad, Mohakhali and Gabtoli bus terminals, the FE correspondent found that hundreds of passengers, mostly with their family members, were arriving in the capital.
As the official and business activities will resume in full-swing from tomorrow (Sunday), the returnees said they had come back to the city.
"I returned to the capital to reopen my business from Sunday," Arshad Khan, who runs a shop at the New Market, told the correspondent at the Kamalapur station on Friday afternoon.
"For the sake of my livelihood, I came back to the capital Dhaka from my village home after celebrating Eid for joining my office from Sunday," Md Khalil Ullah, a private job holder, told this correspondent at the Sadarghat launch terminal.
The launch passengers at Sadarghat said that they did not face any hassle while returning to the capital from different southern districts in the country.
Bus passengers also said they did not face any traffic jams on the highways on the day.
However, some trains could not arrive at Kamalapur Railway Station on scheduled time, causing sufferings to the passengers to some extent.
Talking to the FE, an official of the Bangladesh Railway (BR) admitted that some trains, including Nilsagar Express and Rangpur Express, had arrived at the station a couple of hours after their scheduled arrival time.
Though shopping malls, business centres and markets will reopen tomorrow, schools, colleges and universities are yet to reopen - this might take a few more days to resume academic activities.
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