Dhaka: City dwellers have started living the capital Dhaka for their native villages to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr with their near and dear ones with many choosing trains for their journey out of fear of traffic nightmare on highways.

However, the mass exodus of holidaymakers is expected to begin on Thursday, the last working day before Eid-ul-Fitr, reports the UNB.

Sources at Kamalapur Railway Station said family members of both government and private service holders started leaving the city on Sunday morning to evade Thursday’s mad rush.

Eid-ul-fitr, the largest religious festival of the Muslims, will be celebrated in the country either on June 16 or June 17 depending on sighting of the Shawwal moon. The government holiday for eid will begin on Friday.

Bangladesh Railway authorities started selling advance train tickets on June 1 for eid.

People bought train tickets on that day for the journey of June 10 while tickets for June 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 were sold on June 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 respectively.

Firoza Begum, a resident of Mirpur, said she along with her three children was leaving Dhaka for Rajshahi by ‘Silk City’ train while her husband would join them on June 15.

Though the train was around 20 minutes behind the schedule, they were seen very happy.

Assistant Manager of Kamalapur Railway Station Nripendra Nath Saha told UNB that 44 trains left the station for different destinations across the country on Monday as of 4:45 pm. ‘All but ‘Silk City and ‘Jamuna Express’ left the station in right time. These two trains left the platform 20-30 minutes later,’ he said.

He said many were choosing trains for their journey to avoid hassle in dilapidated roads.

Nripendra said the rush of eid holidaymakers will start on Wednesday and the pressure of passengers is expected to reach the peak on Thursday and Friday.

He said the train schedule usually collapses during the rush and peak periods of a festival as people waste more time while getting into and stepping down from trains at various stations.

The assistant station manager also said the train schedule might collapse from Wednesday when the rush of holidaymakers starts.

Meanwhile, employees of different transport companies at Gabtoli bus stand and Sayedabad bus stand said there was usual number of passengers at the terminals on Monday. The pressure of people would increase from Tuesday evening, they predicted.