Special services start today
Dhaka city dwellers will start leaving the capital today, the last working day of this week, to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with their near and dear ones outside the capital.
A huge number of holidaymakers have already booked tickets of trains, buses and launches for today with the special services scheduled to start today alongside the regular ones.
If the Eid is celebrated on July 30, there will be a single working day on July 27, making the vacation nine days long, starting tomorrow.
Private operators said around 8,000 buses would run daily between Dhaka and other destinations during the Eid rush, but they were fearful of tailbacks due to the battered highways.
The state-run Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation will operate 450 buses daily from Dhaka during the period, said its officials.
Kamrul Ahsan, Dhaka divisional railway manager, said the authorities would operate 64 regular and three special trains from today, and they hoped to carry around 1 lakh passengers daily from Dhaka.
Private launch owners will start the special trips today from Sadarghat Launch Terminal. The government-run Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation will also start operating five steamers today from Dhaka, said its General Manger (commerce) Shaheb Uddin.
Mosharraf Hossain, manager of Hanif Paribahan, said, "All our bus seats for tomorrow are booked. We have the capacity to carry over 15,000 passengers daily from Dhaka to other districts."
Meanwhile, Bangladesh Railway yesterday continued to distribute advance tickets for the fourth consecutive day at Kamalapur Railway Station.
Like previous days, long queues of ticket-seekers were seen before the counters. Though some passengers raised allegations of ticket scalping, those were denied by BR Director General Tafazzal Hossain.
Train tickets for July 28 will be distributed today.
Mahbub Uddin Ahmed Bir Bikram, chairman of Bangladesh Inland Waterways (passenger carrier's) Association, said, "Usually, we operate around 60 to 65 launch trips daily. We will increase it up to 120 based on demand."
Visiting Sadarghat yesterday, Shipping Minister Shajahan Khan said all necessary measures were in place to check overloading and irregularities.
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