Home-goers’ mass departure begins amid incessant rains

The country's major highways have started bearing the brunt of increased number of overloaded vehicles as mass departure of homebound people from the capital and other major cities to spend the Eid vacation with their families at home began Wednesday.
But incessant rains that the city and other parts of the country experienced since early hours dampened delightful mood of the holidaymakers in the form of delayed departure of vehicles and traffic congestion on the highways.
Traffic officials and transport operators, however, said the heavy rains caused further damage to various spots of highways. As a result, a few vehicles remained out of order on the roads, putting severe pressure on the traffic managers to handle.
According to them, nagging tailbacks of thousands of stranded vehicles were also observed on Dhaka-Chittagiong, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways from the morning.
Presence of a significant number of heavy vehicles was also witnessed defying the government restriction on the movements of trucks and covered vans, which came into effect from early hours, for smooth travel of the Eid-goers.
After visiting key exit points like Amin Bazar, Jatrabari and Demra of the city, the FE correspondents found that a number of vehicles allowed rooftop journeys after coming out of the terminals risking lives of many.
And the transport operators were also seen breaching the laws by taking passengers on the rooftops, which was made illegal in 2010 for the safety and security of public lives under the nose of law-enforcers.   
It was also seen that rooftop passengers started their risky journeys wrapped up by polythene to protect their bodies from being wet in the rains and the situation almost remained the same at Kamalapur Railway Station and Sadarghat Launch Terminal.
The mass departure began on the day with at least four to five days ahead of the biggest religious festival. Large crowds of passengers were seen at the capital's bus and launch terminals, and train stations since early morning.
Amir Hossain Bablu, a government employee and Sylhet-bound passenger, said he reached  Sayedabad Bus Terminal at about 10:00am to get into a bus of Shyamoli Paribahan. "It took two hours to reach there from Azimpur because of the rainfall. I don't know the exact condition of the highway," he said.
Kamrul Islam, driver of Shah Ali Paribahan that runs Dhaka-Lalmonirhat Route, said that he left Lalmonirhat for Dhaka at about 8:30pm Tuesday and reached Gabtoli Terminal at about 2:30pm Wednesday.
"I took eight hours to pass 35 kilometres of distance from Kaliakoir to Aminbazar in Savar. The situation will worsen further in the evening when the pressure of home-goers would mount more," he said.   
Talking to the FE, Superintendent of Police (Highway Police, Comilla Zone) Rezaul Karim said vehicles move slowly from Meghna Bridge to Daudkandi Bridge on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway as the bridges could not take the heavy load of vehicles.
He said they faced difficulties to handle traffic movements through the highway because of extra pressure of trucks and covered vans that accounted for nearly 70 per cent of total vehicles.
"And heavy rainfall in the morning has made our jobs much more difficult," he said, adding that the movement of vehicles is slowing down when those move towards two lanes from four lanes on the highway.
Meanwhile, two passengers were killed after falling down from rooftop of a Dhaka-bound bus from northern district at Zirani of Savar.
Confirming the accident, Superintendent of Police (Highway Police, Gazipur) Md Shafiqul Islam said the bus and the identity of the deceased could not be found yet.
When asked on traffic congestion, he said there was a 10- kilometre tailback in Kachpur to Daudkandi Bridge of the Dhaka-Chittagong highway.
Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway witnessed a tailback in the morning which eased after the 11:00am while the traffic jam was on Dhaka-Tangail Highway with nearly 20-kilometre tailback from Nabinagar to Chandra till 4:00pm, he said.
"We are expecting that the condition will be normalised within tonight," he hoped.
Besides, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader along with engineers made a sudden visit to Bailpail Intersection on Dhaka-Tangail Highway to oversee traffic scenario amid rains.
Expressing his dissatisfaction over the traffic management, the minister also instructed engineers and officials concerned to make the Abdullahpur-Ashulia link road, which becomes inundated even in moderate rain, free from jams.
Mr Obaidul Quader said, "It's monsoon time. This challenge will have to be faced. Repairs are being done wherever there is a problem. The main goal is to keep the roads usable for the people."
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