Eid travel up north descends into chaos as factories close for holiday

NGO worker Shamsul Haque Mridha felt assured by reports of comfortable journeys before Eid-ul-Fitr for several days, and government officials’ remarks that there would be no traffic jams.

So he left Dhaka by a Thakurgaon-bound sleeper bus of Burimari Express from Shyamoli at 11:30pm on Monday, an hour behind schedule, after finishing his work.

“It took a long time to leave Dhaka. When I opened my eyes in the morning, we were still in Chandra!”

Chandra is only 42 kilometres from where he started the journey. When the bus crossed Bangabandhu Bridge, it was 11:30am on Tuesday.

“The roads have been improved and widened. Bridges have been built. They are beautiful structures, but our management has not reached such a level that will free us from suffering,” he lamented.

After the factories in and around Dhaka, especially those producing readymade garments, started going into Eid holidays on Monday afternoon, the pressure of traffic, and passengers waiting on the highways to the north, became intense.

The northbound factory workers, many with their families, thronged Savar, Ashulia, Baipail and Chandra, creating same old traffic jams despite years of measures to ease the sufferings, including wider highways, use of drones for traffic management and coordination among government agencies, traffic police and local authorities.

The comfort in Eid journeys by bus and train in the past few days was crushed under the pressure in hours as the festival was nearing. The number of travellers taking water routes increased rapidly as well, but the passengers did not suffer much.

The traffic jams eased in the afternoon after the pressure of passengers increased suddenly because of factory holidays, Highway Police’s Additional Deputy Inspector General Shyamal Mukherjee told bdnews24.com over the phone from Chandra. 

“We’re not allowing bus operators to take or drop passengers other than the counters. And separate lanes to take and drop passengers have been created outside the counters, allowing other vehicles to use the rest of the highway,” he said.

TRAFFIC SLUGGISH IN GAZIPUR

The heavy traffic subsided for an hour or so early on Tuesday morning, but intensified again since the morning, according to passengers and transport drivers.

There was extremely heavy congestion from Monday afternoon to 4am on Tuesday in the Chandra area of Konabari’s Kaliakoir Upazila on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway, in Sreepur Upazila’s Mawna on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, in Jainabazar and Chandana-Chowrasta Station Road, Cheregali, Boardbazar, and the Signboard area of Gazipur highway.

After that it eased slightly. But, from Tuesday morning until 10am, the traffic began to intensify on the Dhaka-Mymensingh and Dhaka-Tangail routes. However, a section of the traffic bound for northern regions had largely normalised by 11am.

“Traffic along the Dhaka-Tangail Highway was moving slowly at the Chandra three-way intersection in Kaliakoir Upazila from Monday afternoon and then throughout the night,” said Md Shahadat Hossain, chief of Naozor Highway Police. “The congestion began to ease a bit on Tuesday morning.”

“There were long lines of traffic around 11:30 in the morning, but they were moving intermittently. Perhaps the situation may improve later this afternoon.”

Abdul Matin works as a lawyer’s assistant at a Gazipur court.

“On Tuesday morning, I took my car to Gazipur’s Bhogra area and reached my ancestral home in the Chankanda area of Mymensingh’s Fulpur in an hour,” he said. “I did not face any congestion.”

However, some vehicles were stopping on the road to pick up passengers and haggle over fares, which was blocking traffic and slowing it down a bit, he said.

Abul Hossain, a driver for Shoukhin Paribahan on the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, said: “When factories closed on Monday afternoon and homebound garment workers took to the road it jammed traffic on the roads and highways. That continued until Tuesday morning. But, since 10am on Tuesday, things have largely returned to normal.”

Md Alamgir Hossain, deputy commissioner of Gazipur Metropolitan Police, said, “There was a heavy rush of traffic at several spots on the Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Mymensingh highways since Monday afternoon. But there was no congestion.”

“On Tuesday morning, the flow of Dhaka-bound traffic got a little underneath the Chandana-Chowrasta Flyover, but it was soon brought under control. There were no issues with the Mymensingh-bound traffic on the flyover itself.”

CHAOS AT KAMALAPUR

Chaos overcame discipline at Kamalapur Railway Station after the rules were followed strictly in the past few days.

All the trains that left the station were overcrowded. The trains heading north in particular barely had room in the cars for people to stand. Passengers were seen crowding onto the train roofs. Usually, railway officers check train tickets at the entrance of the station, but no one bothered on Tuesday.

The Burimari Express headed to Lalmonirhat, the Panchagarh-bound Ekota Express, the Rangpur Express, and the Rajshahi-bound Dhumketu Express were packed with passengers.

The Ekota Express was scheduled to leave the station at 10:15am. When it reached the platform around 10am, the passengers rushed inside.

Many passengers from the Joydebpur, Tongi and Airport stations had already boarded before the train reached Kamalapur in order to grab seats. In an instant, the doors of the train cars were overflowing as too many passengers were stuffed inside. Many people, including women and children, got on by climbing in through the windows.

Md Russel Haque works at a private company in Narayanganj. He got on the Ekota Express to travel to Parbatipur.

There’s no space to walk in the crowded train, Russel said, adding that he had squeezed in through the window.

“I managed to get a ticket after a lot of trouble. Then it was very hard to get onboard. There was no way to get in through the door.”

Another passenger, Md Rakibul Islam, came from Joydebpur. He works as an assistant engineer at a garment factory in Sreepur. Rakibul came to Dhaka to ensure he got a seat for his trip to Panchagarh.

“My ticket shows that I should get on board at Joydebpur. But it’s very tough to get on the train at Joydebpur. Hence, I already got on the train as it was coming to Dhaka to grab a seat,” he said.

Jahangir Alam, an accounting officer at a private structural developer company, said he bought a train ticket online. But on Tuesday, he found it very tough to get on the train. He also struggled to find his seat as many passengers were standing inside the train car.

“They sell ‘standing tickets’ [allowing people to stand inside train cars], which draws a big crowd. Otherwise, the trains would not be overcrowded.”

Some of the trains ran late on Tuesday. The Rangpur Express left the station at 9:40am instead of 9:00am, while the Ekota Express set off at 10:45am instead of 10:15am.

Train trips proceeded in a disciplined manner for the first six days of Eid travel, said Mohammad Sarwar Masud, manager at Kamalapur Railway Station. “But we couldn’t manage the overwhelming crowd after Monday evening.”

“Eid travel by train kicked off on Apr 3. We were running the service in an orderly and disciplined way until Monday afternoon. Then the number of passengers skyrocketed suddenly. The passengers are mostly travelling north. Our law enforcers tried their best, but couldn’t manage the crowd,” the manager said.