In order to reduce the harassment on the way, diminish fare anarchy and road accidents, Bangladesh Jatri Kalyan Samiti (Bangladesh Passengers’ Welfare Association) has demanded to extend the Eid holiday by 2 days to ease the suffering of passengers during the upcoming Eid. The organization has demanded to extend two days holiday on April 8 and 9 to make the Eid journey safer and hassle-free.
Secretary General of Passengers’ Welfare Association Md. Mozammel Haque Chowdhury placed this demand in a press conference organized at Dhaka Reporters Unity (DRU) on Wednesday, March 27, in the morning,
According to the observation of Bangladesh Passengers’ Welfare Association, 1 crore people from Dhaka, 4 million from Gazipur, 1.2 million from Narayanganj and 16 million people from Dhaka and surrounding districts will travel to different destinations in this Eid. In the four days before Eid, 3 million passengers can travel by bus-minibus, 4 million by train, 3.5 million by private car, jeep and microbus, 1.2 million by motorcycle, 6.0 million by launch, and about 1 million by airplane. As many as 1.8 lakh passengers may travel on the roofs of buses, trains and open trucks and freighters due to the public transport crisis and the anarchy of overcharging. Also, about 40 to 50 million passengers will travel inter-district. In this, from April 5 to April 14, there may be an additional 60 million trip passengers in different types of transport in the country due to various reasons including travel to Eid shopping and village homes.
For this reason, it is feared that if proper use of public transport is not ensured, there may be hellish situation in this year’s Eid journey
Because, this time if 30 days of fasting are completed, Eid is likely to be observed on April 11. There is only 1day public holiday on April 10 before Eid. There is a 5-day long holiday from April 10 to April 14. April 14 is the first day of Baisakh. That’s why in this year’s Eid trip, Muslims as well as other religious people will also go to their villages for a long holiday to celebrate Pohela Baisakh. So, the number of passengers will increase. That is, 6 to 7 million people will leave the capital every day on April 9 and 10. But our public transport has the capacity to carry 2.2 to 2.5 million passengers. In such a situation, if the holiday is not extended before Eid, the traffic situation in all the roads of the country may go into a comma. Therefore, if the Eid holiday is extended for 2 days on April 8 and 9, everyone will have the opportunity to go home step by step from April 5. Public transport crisis and passenger suffering will also be relieved. For this reason, the organization has demanded to extend the Eid holiday for two days on April 8 and 9.
