Eid journey: Snarl-ups mostly at Dhaka exits

Rifat Jahan was worried about her Eid journey home with her son and niece as her husband could not accompany them on the trip to Jamalpur's Sarishabari upazila.

Her husband bought the train tickets online and took them to Kamalapur Railway Station around 9:15am yesterday. Jamalpur Express was scheduled to leave at 10:00am.

"The train departed at 10:00am sharp. There was no delay, which we usually see ahead of Eid. We reached Sarishabari station on time," Rifat told this correspondent over the phone.

Like Rifat, people leaving Dhaka by train faced little to no hassle as most trains were on time as of noon. People leaving Dhaka on buses also had almost no difficulty until the evening.

But the situation changed for the worse in the evening as the surge of passengers at stations and terminals increased manifold, largely due to over a thousand garment factories and some offices closing for the holidays.

At bus stations, many had to pay scalpers extra to get tickets. Congestion and crawling traffic were reported in Savar, Baipail, and Chandra areas. These areas are key to people heading north.

The situation may deteriorate today as the number of passengers is expected to increase further, officials and bus operators said.

Eid will be celebrated across the country tomorrow (Wednesday) if the moon heralding the month of Shawal is sighted today (Tuesday) anywhere in Bangladesh. Otherwise, Eid will be celebrated on Thursday.

BOTTLENECKS, OVERCHARGING

The number of people heading home jumped after the garment factories closed. Thousands of people started heading home in the evening overwhelming Gabtoli and Savar, and Baipail and Chandra intersections.

There was a 3km-long tailback between Ulail of Savar and Radio Colony after 5:00pm, our Savar correspondent reported.

There was another 3km tailback from Nabinagar to Shreepur on the Nabinagar-Chandra Road. A large number of people were seen at the bus stops on this road.

Officer-in-Charge of Ashulia Police Station AFM Sayed and officials at the traffic control room at the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority said the number of vehicles rose sharply, slowing down traffic.

According to Industrial Police officials, 1,233 garment factories closed for the holidays yesterday and many of them were located in Ashulia and Gazipur.

Traffic was crawling on Dhaka-Mymensingh highway at Gazipur, our correspondent there reported around 9:00pm.

As the demand increased, many bus operators started overcharging people. Some city bus service providers also joined in after putting their city buses on the highways.

Joynal Mia, a garment worker, told our Savar correspondent at Baipail that he had to pay Tk 1,800 for his trip to Rangpur on what he said was a local bus. The fare is double the normal.

During a visit to Gabtoli Bus Terminal around 5:30pm, one of our correspondents found a huge number of people trying to get tickets.

Staffers at the ticket counters were telling them that tickets were sold out.

However, some scalpers were seen selling tickets taking Tk 200 to Tk 400 on top of the fare.

Faridul Islam, along with two family members, went to Gabtoli around 2:00pm to go to Jashore but could not get any tickets.

"Then I got tickets from a scalper for the journey on a local bus. I had to pay Tk 1,000 per ticket," he said. The usual fare is Tk 750.

Meanwhile, people heading south via Padma Bridge faced severe tailbacks at Jatrabari in the capital.

There was a tailback from Tikatuli to Jatrabari that stared forming in the afternoon.

A bus passenger told this paper over the phone that it took an hour to get to Jatrabari from Tikatuli.

Thousands of people gathered at Kamalapur, Airport, and Joydebpur railway stations in the evening.

Many were seen getting on Dhaka-bound trains at the Joydebpur Railway Station so they could travel for free when the train leaves Dhaka. This put many passengers, who had tickets, in trouble at Kamalapur Railway Station.

Most trains were on time as of yesterday evening. Silkcity Express, Nilsagar Express, Rangpur Express, Drutajan Express and Sundarban Express were running between an hour and an hour and a half late, sources said.

Shah Alam Kiron Shishir, divisional commercial officer (Dhaka Division) of Bangladesh Railway, told The Daily Star around 8:00pm that they had complete control over Kamalapur and Airport railway stations but the situation in Joydepbur was "very difficult".

At least 68 trains, including two special ones, were supposed to leave Dhaka yesterday.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered at the Sadarghat launch terminal in the evening.

As of 9:00pm, 94 launches left the terminal, Alamgir Kabir, joint director of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority, told this correspondent.