DHAKA: With no exception ever, going home for Eid vacationing is bedeviled by sufferings, mental stresses and physical toil before the pleasure.

This time, too, it makes little difference in the common scenario, as it has already been proved.

Barely nine days left before the Eid vacation, sale of tickets for long-distance buses and launches started in the meantime.

Most passengers are being deprived of ticket, as the availability of transport tickets is far outstripped by the needs.       

Besides, the sale of train ticket began Tuesday. Passengers began gathering at Kamalapur Rail Station from Monday after Iftar in a scramble for tickets.

The main huddling will be during the last two days before Eid. Most of the employees will enjoy leave from September 9 or 10 from their workstations. Tickets on the two days will be sold on September 4-5.

People packing their bags for the holiday apprehend that most of them may miss the train, as the number of train services was not increased to carry the growing load of passengers.

According to the estimate of Statistical Bureau, there were a total of 85 lakh people living in the capital city in 2001 and the populace grew to around 1.28 crore in 2008. According to the statisticians’ latest reckoning, at present there are one crore seventy-five lakh people living in the city.

Citizens’ Rights Movement at a roundtable Monday assumed that this year 70 to 80 hundred thousand people would leave the mega-city Dhaka to celebrate the biggest Muslim festival with their near and dear ones at their paternal homes or homes of in-laws.

The number is on an incremental rise but the transportation facilities are not increasing proportionally rather the routes are getting reduced for various reasons.

Besides, some 130 rail stations out of 387 were left derelict in the last three years. As a result, pressure on the road transport increased.

“But no initiative has been taken for developing the road communications during the time rather the transportation decreased on the long-distance roads and waterways,” said an expert.

Moreover, accidents happen every year during the Eid vacation, as old buses and launches are re-launched into service for passenger transportation.

With the increase in the number of transport vehicles, additional unskilled drivers and manpower are engaged in the sector. The transport owners and workers pick a windfall from the rush.

Time becomes very valuable than life for the common man. As a result, they travel by such risky transport.

Government and non-government watchdogs concerned advised people not to travel taking risks.

BDST: 1705 HRS, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010