Thousands of people from across the country returned to Dhaka city on Saturday to join work as offices reopen today after a relatively longer Eid holiday.
The road journey back was rather smooth as most highways were congestion free. The trains also ran mostly on schedule.
A good number of people, particularly those who could not go on holiday during Eid owing to different reasons, were seen leaving Dhaka city after Eid, including on Saturday.
On the day, bus, train and launch terminals were filled with loads of returning people and with vehicles, while the roads and streets in the rest of the city were congestion free with people moving about with ease.
Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals for Muslims, was celebrated in the country on March 31.
On the occasion, the government announced a five-day holiday from March 29 to April 2 followed by April 3 which was announced a general holiday after which came the weekend of Friday and Saturday.
From today the government offices and most of the private offices will reopen.
Classes at the government primary schools will resume from tomorrow (April 7), while the secondary level schools will reopen from April 9.聽
The extended holiday brought added joy for the holidaymakers who enjoyed mostly hassle-free journey this Eid in absence of serious traffic congestion on the highways.
Additional prices of bus and launch tickets, illegal parking, highway-side kitchen markets spilling on the road, and the movement of three-wheelers on highways, however, caused public suffering.
The rush of the Dhaka-bound people travelling by trains intensified on Saturday in the capital at the Dhaka rail station, popularly known as Kamalapur station.
Station master Anowar Hossain said that throughout the day crowds of passengers arrived at Kamalapur.
Two trains, Rangpur Express and Burimari Express, however, were running behind their schedules, he said, adding that some people also left Dhaka on the day.
Till 7:00pm on the day, Burimari Express on the Dhaka-Lalmonirhat route was around four hours and Rangpur Express on Dhaka-Rangpur route was two and a half an hour late behind their schedules.
At the capital鈥檚 three inter-district bus terminals at Gabtoli, Mohakhali and Saidabad, people were seen arriving from outside Dhaka throughout the day.
The terminals were busy as arriving passengers were seen bargaining with the drivers of CNG-run auto-rickshaws and battery-run rickshaws and rickshaw pullers to go to their destinations in the city.
Md Ramzan, an employee of Shymoli Paribahan at Gabtoli terminal, said that the rush of people arriving at Dhaka by buses was peak in the morning and in the afternoon.
At the Sadarghat launch terminal in the city, many passengers were seen disembarking from launches on Saturday.
Launches packed with passengers were seen arriving at Sadarghat from different southern areas on the day.