Mad rush for home begins ahead of Eid

Tens of thousands of people are traveling to their villages and hometowns from Dhaka and adjoining areas on Friday crowding road and rail transport as only two days left for Eid-ul-Azha.

On Friday, the first day of the weekend, home-bound people thronged rail stations and bus terminals while shortage of transport, exorbitant fares and traffic jams made their journey miserable.

People were seen travelling to their destinations by overcrowded trains and buses defying life risks.

A large number of travellers are also seen traveling by various types of three-wheelers including cattle-laden trucks which are not allowed to carry passengers on the highways.

In the capital Dhaka, from morning people were seen going to all the major city exit points including train stations at Kamalapur, and airport area and bus terminals at Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Saidabad.

Gabtoli, Mohakhali terminals witnessed a big rush of home-bound people early the morning as a huge number of passengers gathered there. And it is witnessed that they will have to suffer due to the bus ticket crisis.

Meanwhile increased traffic congestion and terrible tailbacks were reported on Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways as the rush of homebound people peaked on Thursday night.

There were long queues of vehicles at different spots on the highways until Friday morning. The traffic police were struggling to handle the pressure of vehicles on the highways.

Law enforcers said the ready-made garments factories in Gazipur went on vacation on Thursday noon and soon thousands of workers started returning home at a time.

That is why the pressure of vehicles increased a few times on the Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail highways, according to highway police.