Azizul Islam, a Jessore-bound passenger, had little hopes of reaching his village home before Eid-ul-Fitr as traditionally finding an express service ticket on the last days of Ramadan becomes extremely tough due to the huge flow of home-bound passengers.
But to much surprise, Azizul saw several bus staff shouting “Jessore! Jessore! Seat empty! Seat empty!” when he arrived at the Gabtoli bus terminal in the capital.
“I was really surprised to see employees of several luxurious transport operations inviting passengers during the Eid rush. I have never seen it before,” he said while talking to the Dhaka Tribune.
At a time when most people would expect bus terminals, railway stations and river ports in the capital to be jam-packed with home bound passengers like previous years, this year, the scenario was much different.
Unlike previous years, home-bound passengers suffered less this time as most launches and trains left stations without much delay, ferry services remained smooth and almost no traffic grid locks were witnessed on the highways till yesterday evening.
Many bus operators claimed that they did not face any traffic congestion on major routes out of the capital, such as Kachpur Bridge, Gazipur Chowrasta, Chandra, Savar, Nabinagar, Baipail Bridge and others of the highways around the country.
“God knows what happened this year. This did not happen in the past. I think people have decided not to go home for Eid,” said Shakhwat Hossain, a counter staff of Eagle Paribahan’s Jessore service, while expressing his frustration over the low turnout of passengers.
“Last year, we stopped selling tickets by noon. Some passengers made special requests and even offered extra money for a ticket,” he said adding that, however, no bus had left the terminal with empty seats as the drivers were seen delaying the schedule for 30 minutes to one hour to fill up all of the seats.
The transport workers hope that the crowd will intensify on Monday after garment factories announce their holidays.
During a visit to the bus terminals, the Dhaka Tribune found that many passengers were hovering from one counter to another and bargaining prices of bus tickets.
“The government has closed the school and colleges during the beginning of Ramdan. Many people have sent their families home earlier. We had moderate passengers since then. So, I think there will be no mad rush this year,” said Mohammad Tamal Hossain, a staff of SP Paribahan.
The scenario was almost the same at Sayedabad Bus terminal in the capital.
As most low-income people could not afford tickets of long route buses, a large number of commuters, mostly labours and garment workers, were forced to pay extra charges in the local bus services.
Riajul, a Tangail-bound passenger said: “Generally, the fare for Dhaka to Tangail is Tk140, but for the Eid service, we had to pay Tk200 for a single ticket of Dholeshowri Paribahan.”
At the same time, home-bound people also faced harassment from vendors and beggars at the terminals.
Farida Ahker, a Chittagong-bound passenger at Sayedabad said: “When we reached at the bus terminal, a group of labors grabbed our luggages and started to drag them without taking any permission from us.”
Although vigilance teams of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) and Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) had been working at the bus terminals to avoid such harassment, most passengers said the vigilance made no difference at all.
Hasanuzzaman, in-charge of a police camp at Sayedabad Bus Terminal said: “The teams are actively working in 24 hours. If any illegal activities find out in the area, steps would be taken against the criminals and extortionists.”
At Sadarghat Launch Terminal, it was found that the number of passengers increased in the afternoon. However, since morning, passengers were seen boarding on the roof of launches and on the corridor of cabins.
A total of 56 launches left the terminal for Chandpur, Barisal, Bhola, Borhanuddin, Lalmohon, Charfashion, Letra, Barguna, Amtoli, Hularhat, Patuakhali, Kalaia, Rangabali, Madaripur, Torki and other destinations.
Some passengers, however, claimed that the launch staffs were charging extra fare.
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) evicted hawkers from the pontoon for smooth moving of the passengers in the evening. BIWTA staffs were also seen making announcements over loud speakers requesting passengers not to board on the roof of the launches.
“We are compelling the launches to leave terminals before becoming over crowded. We are also requesting passengers not to board overcrowded launches, but they it seems that they care less,” said BIWTA Joint Director Saiful Haque.
Meanwhile at Komalapur Railway Station, trains left the stations in 30 minutes to one hour delay, although most trains witnessed no extra pressure of passengers in the compartments.
Station Manager Khairul Bashir told the Dhaka Tribune that selling of standing tickets was less than expected and claimed that trains that left the station did not miss schedule by a large scale.
“Presence of passengers was moderate but as the trains are not running late, pressure is not that high,” he claimed.