The 10-day holiday for Eid-ul-Azha has begun, and hundreds of thousands of people are leaving Dhaka to celebrate with their families. The capital is now almost empty, but traffic is heavy in the areas with cattle markets and on the main roads out of the city, causing jams.

The holiday started on Thursday, 5 June, and runs for 10 days until 14 June. Working people began leaving the city from Wednesday afternoon (4 June), and the exodus swelled from Thursday morning, leaving Dhaka largely deserted.

A tour of different parts of Dhaka from morning to afternoon found most roads fairly empty, with little congestion because of light traffic. There were some jams near the cattle markets, and heavy congestion at the two main exit points, Gabtoli and the Sayedabad-Jatrabari area.

Jago News senior reporter Salah Uddin Jasim, who visited Shyamoli, Kalyanpur and Gabtoli, reported crowds of homebound people at Gabtoli from the morning, along with cattle trucks on the roads through Shyamoli, Kalyanpur and Gabtoli. This caused a long tailback from Shyamoli to Gabtoli.

He said Gabtoli bus terminal was packed from morning to afternoon, and by the afternoon there was a shortage of vehicles. Many were waiting for transport. Besides buses, passengers travelled on trucks, pickup vans, local buses on various routes and Leguna vehicles. Because of the shortage of public transport and extra fares, people were seen heading home at risk on open trucks, pickup vans and bus roofs.

Senior reporter Fazlul Haque Mridha, who visited Jatrabari and Sayedabad, said there was heavy pressure of homebound people there from the morning, creating some congestion. But beyond Dholaipar on one side and Shanir Akhra on the other, the roads were fairly clear.

Senior reporter Saiful Haque Mithu, who visited Shahbagh, Karwan Bazar, Farmgate, Agargaon, Mirpur-1, Mirpur-2 and Mirpur-10, said traffic was light and the roads almost empty, with no jams anywhere.

Staff reporter Avijit Kaushik, who visited Kamalapur, Motijheel, Paltan, Moghbazar and Banglamotor, said the roads there were also quite empty, with relatively few public vehicles. Passengers were waiting for transport at various points, and there were complaints that extra fares were being charged because of the shortage. Even rickshaw pullers were demanding more.

In Rampura, Badda, Natun Bazar, Gulshan and Banani, the Merul Badda cattle market caused jams in Badda, and the Bhatara 100 Feet market caused some congestion at Natun Bazar. Even so, traffic was much lighter than on other days: one side of the road was jammed while the other was empty. Roads in Gulshan, Banani and Rampura were almost empty.

In Gulshan, Amena Khatun said most people in Dhaka go to their village homes every Eid, so the city known for its traffic jams empties out. "This time there is a 10-day holiday. It is natural that most people will leave Dhaka. If there were no cattle markets, you would see no one on Dhaka's roads," she said.

"Normal Dhaka and Eid-time Dhaka are completely different. Normally people get fed up with the jams travelling from one place to another. But at Eid we can breathe easy for a few days and move around the city in peace. How good it would be if Dhaka were always like this," she added.

At Natun Bazar, Ismita Akter said: "I am going to Manik Nagar. I have been standing on the road for 20 minutes and cannot get on a bus. There are very few buses, and the one or two that come are full. Rickshaws and CNG-run auto-rickshaws are asking for much higher fares. There are no jams, but getting on a bus is a struggle."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.