Dhaka traffic light as Eid vacation starts

Those who stayed back in Dhaka for the Eid vacations, or are yet to leave for their home districts, found the city all but devoid of the notorious traffic that residents have to struggle through on a daily basis.

With the five-day government holiday beginning today on the occasion of the Eid-ul-Fitr, Dhaka streets wore a deserted look.

Many are leaving the capital to celebrate Eid with loved ones, while many others preferred to stay at home due to the sultry weather.

There was thin presence of pedestrians, rickshaws, CNG-run auto-rickshaws and other modes of vehicles since morning today.

There were still some crowds in front of some markets and shopping malls, but even those were smaller than on other days.

The Daily Star employees, who come to the office in Farmgate from various parts of the capital, expressed relief over the unusually light traffic.

"It usually takes 30 to 40 minutes to reach Farmgate from Dhanmondi by car. But today, I reached my destination in 10 minutes," one of them said.

"It gave me a heavenly feeling. I love this empty Dhaka. Wish, could always travel inside Dhaka like this," she said.

Journeys from Motijheel, Lalbagh, Mohammadpur and Banani was similarly pleasant due to the light traffic and drastically reduced number of buses on the streets, others said. 

While travelling to Farmgate from Savar, our photojournalist Palash Khan said it usually takes at least an hour to travel on the route by motorcycle. But today, he made it in 35 minutes.

There was no rush at the Gabtoli Bus Terminal also, he said

Today is the government holiday on the occasion of Shab-e-Qadr. Eid holidays were supposed to be from April 21-23. April 20 was supposed to be a working day.

To extend the holiday, the government declared April 20 a holiday too and so the five-day Eid holiday began from today.

Holidays will be extended by one more day to include April 24 if there are 30 days of Ramadan and Eid-ul-Fitr is celebrated on April 23.