Pressure of vehicles on different routes increased yesterday as thousands of people left the capital to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr in their hometowns and villages with friends and relatives. As a result, holidaymakers from Dhaka faced sufferings due to long tailbacks on different highways.
Hundreds of people travelled on the roofs of buses, trains and launches to reach their hometowns and villages. Homebound people also travelled on trucks and pickup vans. Even though travelling on the roofs of vehicles is prohibited, the authorities, including law enforcers, seemed reluctant to take any action.
Meanwhile, despite the deployment of law enforcers on the highways, it was hard to manage the traffic as the number of vehicles was far more than the carrying capacity of the roads.
Picking up passengers at different points on the highways also hindered the smooth flow of vehicles. Appalling road condition, including potholes, was also responsible for traffic snarls.
Large crowds were seen at different inter-district bus terminals at Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Sayedabad since morning. The Sadarghat launch terminal and the Kamalapur railway station were also teeming with people.
Thousands were seen waiting for buses at the Kalyanpur ticket counters and Gabtoli bus terminal. Some of the buses left on time,  but many passengers complained that they had been waiting for hours.
Several counter managers said the buses had left the terminal on time till 9am. They, however, added that vehicle movement was slow because of long tailbacks on the Dhaka-Tangail highway.
Plabon, assistant general manager of SR Travels, said: “Some of our buses left the terminal on time till 9am. But since some of our other buses couldn’t return on Thursday due to traffic snarls, there would be some delay for other passengers.”
Highway police sources said a heavy vehicular pressure at different points in Chandra, Kaliakoir and Kharajora areas on the Dhaka-Tangail highway since Friday morning led to tailbacks at Chandra and Kaliakoir points of the district.
Besides, vehicles moved at a snail’s pace at the Chandana intersection on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway.
People were seen waiting for hours at many points on the highways due to the shortage of vehicles. Some people, however, paid extra amounts and arranged vehicles to reach their destinations.Mohamamd Harun-or-Rashid, superintendent of Gazipur police, said police, Ansar and community police were working jointly to ease people’s suffering on the highways.
Besides, a control room and check-posts had been set up to ensure smooth travel by homebound people, he added. Buses to Comilla, Chittagong, Noakhali and Sylhet left the Sayedabad Bus Terminal on schedule.
There was a traffic jam stretching for 13km at Munshiganj’s Gazaria on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway yesterday. It started after a truck broke down on the Meghna Bridge, said Gazaria police station OC Md Hedayet Islam Bhuiyan.
The bridge, narrower than the road, has only two lanes, though the highway has four lanes. The traffic situation, however, improved after goods-laden trucks heading for Dhaka were diverted or stopped on the highway, police sources said.
Meanwhile, 18 ferries were operating from the river port, and most of the vehicles waiting on the banks to be shipped across were private cars. So, the situation was likely to improve soon, said Shah Khaled Newaz, assistant general manager for the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at Shimulia.
At Aricha, more than a thousand cars and 30 buses had lined up to be ferried across the river, said BIWTC’s Zillur Rahman.
The Kamalapur railway station was teeming with homebound people. Many people were seen getting inside the train through the windows to get seats. Others were seen travelling on the roofs of coaches.
When asked, station master Sitangshu Chakrabarti said the trains were leaving on time. “We’ve repeatedly asked the passengers not to travel on the on the roof, but it’s impossible to stop them,” he added.
Meanwhile, railway minister Mujibul Haque at the Kamalapur station yesterday expressed satisfaction over the running of trains. “Trains are leaving on time. I’ve spoken to many passengers and they said they had got the trains on time. They are happy,” he said.
The minister also said at least 27 trains had left the station on time till 3pm, but the Rangpur Express was a bit late due to technical problems.
Replying to a query, Haque said,: “No one is permitted to travel on rooftops, but many people are doing so. We’ve told the law enforcers to tell the passengers not to travel on the roof.”
Railway security personnel said almost all the trains left the station 10-20 minutes behind schedule due to enormous passenger pressure.
The homebound passengers of southern districts generally prefer the launch service to travel home. As a result, there was a huge crowd at the Sadarghat launch terminal yesterday.