Bus, train, launch overcrowded Ticket charges double: Gridlock on highways passengers stranded for hours together
. Sagar Biswas
Millions of city dwellers have started flocking to bus, train and launch terminals to go to their village homes to be with their loved ones during the Eid-ul Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of Muslims to be observed on August 9 or 10, subject to sighting of the moon.
Approximately one million people on an average leave the city every day by bus, train, launch and other transports during the Eid festival. The trend will increase with the nearing of Eid day. Around 6-7 million people out of nearly 1.5 crore citizens living in the capital usually go home ahead of the Eid, according to guess estimate.
Large number of vehicles is causing long gridlock on all the national and regional highways including Dhaka-Sylhet and Dhaka-Rangpur-Dinajpur due to slow traffic, but the Dhaka-Chittagong highway is bearing the brunt of the severe congestion mainly due to dilapidated condition of roads and frequent accidents.
Thousands of home bound passengers mainly users of Dhaka-Chittagong highway yesterday [Tuesday] suffered a lot due to long 50-60 kilometer tailbacks at least at three points including one from Daudkandi Bridge to Maynamati Cantonment following road accidents.
The passengers mostly women and children had to pass about 14-to 16 hours on the road as there was heavy downpour whole day. The journey normally requires six to seven hours.
Particularly, the sufferings of passengers reached at high peak when hundreds of agitated workers of Anwara Jute Mills put blockade on the highway at Sitakunda area demanding salaries and bonus for Eid at 5 pm. At that time about 50 km tailback was created on the highways. Later high police officials of Chittagong Range rushed to the spot and brought the situation under control.
When contacted, Chittagong SP, Sakhawat Hossain, said: "We have picked up the owner of the mills and asked him to meet the demand of workers next day [Wednesday]. The workers left the highway after getting the assurance at 6:30 pm. Just now the vehicles started moving…Hope, the gridlock will be easy within a few hours."
"Yes, there are tailbacks on all the highways, but the condition is tolerable today. We have taken enough measures to keep the highways free from traffic jam. We think the 'heavy rush' will begin from Wednesday as all garment factories will be closed for Eid holidays on the day," DIG Highway, MD Humayun Kabir PPM, told The New Nation on Tuesday night.
General Secretary of Bangladesh Sarak Paribahan Sramik Federation Khandaker Enayetullah Khan said: "Both public and private operators have doubled the number of different moods of transports to carry homebound passengers from the capital during the Eid."
Yesterday, most of the city's inter-district bus terminals, railway station and launch terminals were found overcrowded. The people were seen so frantic and desperate to travel to their homes for celebrating Eid ignoring the risk involved in the journey.
Capital's three major bus terminals - Gabtoli, Sayedabad and Mohakhali - were seen overcrowded with passengers. It is alleged that the bus operators were charging excess fare on short-distance routes like Dhaka-Kishoreganj, Dhaka-Comilla and Dhaka-Narsingdi.
The long-distance bus fare on routes like Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Sylhet, Dhaka-Moulvibazar, Dhaka-Habiganj, Dhaka-Cox's Bazar, Dhaka-Feni and Dhaka-Noakhali were seen charged around 40 to 50 per cent higher than usual.