With Eid-ul-Fitr just around the corner, people have already started leaving the capital Dhaka in large scale to celebrate the religious festival with their near and dear ones. Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of the Muslims, will be celebrated in Bangladesh either on 22 April or 23 April upon the sighting of Moon.
The holy Lailatul Qadr or Shab-e-Qadr, the holiest and most blessed night for Muslims, falls on today (Wednesday), which is a public holiday, while the government has declared tomorrow (Thursday) as holiday by an executive order to ease the travel of holidaymakers.
A large number of government and private staffs left the capital Dhaka, other metropolitan cities and district towns on Monday afternoon after completing their office works on the last working day.
Bangladesh Railway (BR) on Monday started facilitating the home-goers. On Tuesday, trains faced moderate pressure of passengers, with several north-bound trains running behind schedule.
The Eid journey is likely to get momentum from today.City’s Sayedabad, Gabtali and Mahakhali bus terminals, Sadarghat lunch terminal and Kamalapur and Airport railway stations saw a huge crowd of home-goers as people are leaving the capital to enjoy the festival at their village homes.
Authorities concerned should
take necessary steps to make
Eid journey of the holiday
makers safe and hassle-free
People of 21 districts in the country’s southwest region are using Padma Bridge in crossing the mighty River Padma and they are traveling their respective destinations quickly and safely. They are driving straight to their respective home districts from capital Dhaka by road, leaving the awful nightmare of ferry ghat, as they are now crossing the river in just six minutes over the bridge.
However, the homebound people passed another day of intolerable sufferings as they got stuck on roads and even different flyovers for hours due to heavy traffic gridlock across the city on Tuesday.
City’s all roads heading towards the most highways connected with Dhaka saw huge traffic on Tuesday. Traffic congestions in the city turned acute, causing intolerable sufferings to the homebound people alongside commuters.
To cope with the increased passenger and vehicular pressure, the ministries concerned should take collective measures to make hassle-free Eid journey of the holidaymakers immediately.
Apart from these, strong enforcement of law and monitoring by the authorities concerned are necessary to check the violation of traffic rules, overtaking, traffic chaos, plying of unfit vehicles, remove obstacles to smooth traffic and ensure better management at different intersections and entry and exit points of the capital. If sincere efforts and cooperation of all concerned are made this year, Eid journey would be a comfortable one washing away all apprehensions.
