Passengers suffer in homebound trips Huge crowd at every exit point of Dhaka as people rush for villages ahead of Eid-ul-Fitr festival,Bangladesh

BANGLADESH NEWS

Like the previous years, traffic movement at the major exit points in the capital came almost to a standstill round the day as the rush of home-going people got momentum ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr.

Thousands of city dwellers left the city from dawn to midnight yesterday, the first day of at least six-day-long holiday, while a large number of people are expected to leave for home today.

Passengers have to remain stranded for hours to cross the exit points -- Jatrabari, Uttara and Sadarghat. However, another exit point Gabtoli was comparatively less jam-packed.

"It took a couple of hours to cross Jatrabari from Fakirapool although it takes around 40 minutes on a normal day," said Mostafa Kamal, who was going to Chittagong.

Passengers' sufferings did not end there, as the highways also experienced long tailbacks due to excessive rush of vehicles.

Vehicular movement on the Dhaka-Chittagong Highway slowed down all day long as a lorry overturned yesterday morning at Porpai in Burichang upazila in Comilla.

A tailback stretching four to 10 kilometres was created at Mawa ferry ghat in Munshiganj. Traffic movement was very slow at the Tongi to Gazipur intersection.

Bus schedules completely collapsed because of heavy traffic congestion on the highways. Different bus services had to defer their schedules by several hours adding woes to the suffering of passengers.

During visits to Kalyanpur and Gabtoli bus terminals it was noticed that hundreds of passengers were waiting for hours for their buses.

"I came here at 11:30am as my bus was scheduled to arrive at 12:00pm. But now they are saying the bus will arrive at 3:00pm," said Jessore-bound Hakim Mia, who was waiting at Kalyanpur.

In Kamalapur railway station, almost all the trains delayed by around one or one and a half hours.

"My train [Chattala Express] was scheduled to leave the station at 10:40am. But it has not arrived still [around 1:45pm]," said Tauhidul Islam, a student of Notre Dame College.

Sardar Shahdat Ali, divisional railway manager (DRM) of Bangladesh Railway, admitted that most of the trains delayed due to heavy rush of passengers.

Twenty-four trains left Kamalapur for different destinations from morning to 8:00pm last night, he informed.

Although Communications and Railways Minister Obaidul Quader strongly directed the authorities to stop travelling on the roof, hundreds of desperate passengers were seen violating the directive.

Passengers heading for southern districts who travel by launches faced severe trouble to reach Sadarghat launch terminal due to traffic gridlock from Gulistan to the terminal.

All the launches anchored at the terminal were seen carrying passengers on the roof that is completely prohibited.

Speaking anonymously, an official of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) said, "We cannot stop people from travelling on the roof because there is a huge rush of passengers. If the law enforces try to force the passenger to get down, clashes will be erupted between them and the passengers."

Passengers at the terminal claimed that almost all the launches intentionally made delays to get more passengers.

Denying the allegation, BIWTA Senior Deputy Director Rafiqul Islam said, "We have forced at least 15 launches to leave the terminal ahead of schedule today to resist overloading."

As many passengers travel on a "first come, first served" basis on the deck, many of them thronged the terminal before sunrise to book their space.

"I have come here after taking Saheri because if I am late, I'll lose my chance to get any space on the deck," said Motahar Hossain, who was going to Bhola to celebrate the Eid.

LONG TAILBACK ON DHAKA-CTG HIGHWAY

Commuters got stuck in traffic jam on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, as an overturned lorry slowed down the vehicular movements between Comilla Cantonment and Iliotganj of Daudkandi (32 kilometres).

Communications Minister Obaidul Quader also got stuck in the jam for some time around 1:00pm yesterday on his way to Noakhali.

A Chittagong-bound lorry flipped over at Porpai of Comilla around 6:00am the same day, halting the traffic movement for hours on the highway, reports our Comilla correspondent.

Anwar Hossain, a sergeant of Iliotganj Highway Police, said even though police removed the truck using a wrecker around 11:00am, the jam could not be eased until afternoon due to the pressure of the large number of vehicles.