Dhaka: Monday being the last office day for most of the public and private sector job holders before the Eid-ul-Azha, the mad rush of home-goers started from this evening.

The holidaymakers were seen rushing towards the city’s train, bus and launch stations in their pursuit to go to respective village homes and share the Eid joys with near and dear ones.   

The three-day official Eid holidays will begin on Tuesday (August 21) as Eid-ul-Azha will be celebrated on Wednesday (August 22), reports the UNB.

City dwellers, especially the family members of both government and private job holders, started leaving the capital from Friday morning to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with their relatives in the villages and district towns. Many have chosen to send their families a bit early to avoid the last moment’s mad rush just a day ahead of Eid. 

Thousands of city dwellers are expected to leave the capital Dhaka this year to celebrate the Eid, said AIG (Media) Police headquarters Md Sohel Rana. 

Most of the holidaymakers, specially family members of government and semi-government officials and employees as well as private service holders and employees of various industries have already left the city, he said.

There was a greater crowd than usual at Kamalapur Railway Station as the home-goers were using the railway for their journey fearing traffic congestions and hassles on highways.

Officer-in-charge of Kamalapur Railway police station Yasin Faruque told UNB that a total of 84 trains were scheduled to leave the station on Monday. Passengers had to suffer much as most of the trains left the station some two to four hours behind their scheduled times.

Replying to a question he said as there was heavy tailback on the highways in last several days, passengers preferred to travel by train despite overcrowding. Return trains failed to reach the Kamalapur railway station timely as those had to run slowly to reach respective destinations carrying too many passengers on the rooftops. On the other hand, it needed more time to restrain passengers from riding on rooftops, the OC said.

Sources at the Sadarghat said though there was huge crowd but most of the launches left the terminal timely on Monday.

Officer-in-charge of Darus Salam police station Selim uz-zaman said most of the inter-city buses left the Gabtoli bus terminal normally on Monday.

Another police officer of Jatrabari police station said buses left Saidabad and Jatrabari almost timely as no tailback was prevailing on Dhaka- Chattogram highway. 

Officer-in-charge of Daudkandi Highway police station Abul Kalam Azad said though there was huge pressure of vehicles on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway from Monday morning but there were no jams as vehicles moved in discipline.