DHAKA, Nov 5: Going home to celebrate Eid with kith and kin has turned into a nightmare due to long gridlock on highways, disarray in the train schedule and overcrowded launches.
At least eight people died after falling off the roofs of two trains in Joypurhat, Naogaon and Tangail early Saturday and Friday night.
The victims were going home to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of the Muslims, with their near and dear ones. The Eid will be celebrated in the country on Monday. According to railway officials in Joypurhat, four passengers, who were riding on the roof of the Parbatipur-bound Eid special train, fell on the ground along the railway tracks after being hit with an iron structure of Halhaliya Bridge under Akkelpur upazila at around 2am Saturday.
Two of the victims died in the morning while the others succumbed to their injuries in the afternoon at Shaheed Ziaur Rahman Medical College Hospital in Bogra.
The deceased were identified as Uzzal Miah, 30, son of Rawshan Ali of Parbatipur in Dinajpur, Dulal, 30, son of Sona Miah of Kaharol in Bogra and Julfikar Ali, 32, son of Habibur Rahman of Nilphamari.
In Naogaon, the railway police recovered body of a garment worker, Harunur Rashid, 27, of Palashbari in Gaibandha from beside the railway tracks at Raninagar railway station at around 11am Saturday.
Quoting family members, railway officials said the victim was on way to the village home on Eid vacation travelling on the roof of a train from which he might fell from the roof sometime at night and died.
In Tangail, four people died and three were injured after falling off the roof of a running train in Mirzapur upazila of Tangail Friday night.
Three of the deceased were identified as Mintu Miah, 18, of Shahzadpur upazila in Sirajganj, Mamun Miah, 22, of Faridpur in Pabna and Jahirul Islam, 25, of Bholahat upazila of Chapainawabganj while the other, aged about 30, could not be known. Railway officials said that the seven people, who were travelling on the roof of Rajshahi-bound Silk City Express from Dhaka, fell off the train after they were hit by an electric wire when the train reached Deobhog near Mohera Railway Station at around 9pm Friday.
Two of the passengers died on the spot while five injured were taken to Mirzapur Kumudini Hospital where two succumbed to their injuries.
Thousands of people who are travelling by bus in different routes across country got trapped in gridlocks, especially on Dhaka-Chittagong, Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Aricha highways. It is taking double or triple times to reach their destinations due to heavy traffic jam.
Passengers in the buses services stuck on different routes and had to suffer the worst especially women and children without food, water or toilet facilities.
Buses and trucks created a 40-50km-long tailback on Dhaka-Chittagong highway between Daudkandi and Comilla cantonment.
It is taking 2-3 hours more than the usual schedule on the Dhaka-Chattagong route and it has created much suffering to the homebound passengers in the eastern zone.
Our Tangail correspondent said: Traffic congestion on Dhaka-Tangail highways cause immense sufferings to the home-bound people, especially women and children. The congestion started from Friday and is continuing.
The Dhaka-Tangail traffic system had also been collapsed and had created 75-km long gridlock stretching between Mirzapur and Elenga since morning from Chandra to the Bangabandhu Bridge.
Sanower Hossain Inspector of Highway Police of Tangail told The Independent that huge congestion caused at Derua railway crossing, Gorai Industrial area, Pakulla, Natiyapara, Korotia, Elenga, Elanga rail crossing.
The heavy rush of transports on the two lane route has created the unending traffic jam. The police department is trying hard and soul to ease the traffic jam, he claimed.
Police Super of Tangail AKM Hafiz Akhter told the Independent that they have deployed 750 police personnel to control traffic movement. SP, Additional SP, Inspectors, Sub-Inspectors are also toiling round the clock in discharging their duties to ease the jam. He hopes that by ending of the day normalcy may come by their hard efforts.
Romesh Chandra Ghosh, Managing Director of Shyamoli Paribahan said, “Traffic jam is the reason for the collapse of their bus schedule. We really do not know where the buses are. So it is impossible to say when the bus will arrive.”
“I have come here at 6:00 am and now it is 12:30 pm. The employees cannot even say when the bus will arrive,” said Kamrul Hasan, a Rangpur-bound passenger, at Kalyanpur.
Excessive number of vehicles and delays in toll collection at Tora Toll Plaza created huge tailbacks on Dhaka Aricha highway in Ghior. A 6km-long queue was seen there around noon.
Delays in getting on ferries at Paturia and Daulatdia terminals caused traffic jam on both sides of the river adding woe to the passengers’ sufferings.
Shaymol Kumar Nath, additional superintendent of highway police (Comilla), said, “The gridlock became severe around 10:00am and lasted until 2:00pm between Meghna Bridge and Daudkandi.
Huge rush of vehicles, delays in paying toll at Meghna Bridge and breakdowns caused the gridlock, he claimed.
Meanwhile, thousand of people taking the risk of life are traveling on the roof of the train. But all trains were reaching destinations around 2 or 3 hours late. Khulna-bound Sundarbans Express was supposed to reach Dhaka at 6:20am but it came around 9:30, while Rangpur Express arrived five hours late.
However, the situation turned worse later in the day when a freight train derailed between Rajapur and Sadar Rasulpur railway stations in Comilla. The derailment snapped train communication between Dhaka and Chittagong, and Chittagong and Sylhet for five hours.
While hundreds were seen getting on the roof of launches at Sadarghat Launch Terminal, despite the government ban on the risky travel. All launches were seen overloaded.
Launch operators have started making two trips a day to cope with the rush of people heading home. Many passengers were seen looking for tickets, while most of the passengers travelled on
deck. Around 90 launches left the terminal yesterday for their destinations, said Mahbubur Rahman, traffic inspector of Sadarghat.
Source: theindependentbd.com
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