A virtually unending stream of homebound people -- men, women and children-- crowded the city's inter-district bus terminals, Kamalapur railway station and Sadarghat launch terminal yesterday as on the previous few days.

The rush will climax today and tomorrow as the Eid will be celebrated on Friday or Saturday, depending on the sighting of the Shawal moon.

Over three million city dwellers have already left for their homes in the last several days and around two million more are expected to leave today and tomorrow, unofficial estimates said.

The home-goers are braving a lot of troubles and many of them are even risking their lives by travelling in unfit launches and buses.

The troubles facing them are non-availability of bus, train and launch tickets at counters, exorbitantly high price and scapling of tickets, nagging traffic jam, shortage of fit vehicles, snatching and lack of security.

Several passengers told this correspondent that they would forget the troubles on their way once they reached home.

It is feared that over two lakh people may not be able to go home before the Eid due to shortage of transport and non-availability of tickets.

Around five million people used to leave the city on the eve of the Eid in the previous few years. But this year the number is likely to be higher as the three-day Eid vacation from tomorrow will virtually be a longer one with November 7 being a public holiday.

Meanwhile, taking advantage of the unusual rush of passengers, many unfit launches and buses were also plying from Sadarghat launch terminal and bus terminals.

Sadarghat Launch Terminal

About 250-300 launches including a large number unfit ones now leave Sadarghat launch terminal every day, carrying passengers beyond their capacity. This is happening despite the government warning of stern action against unfit launches and overloading.

Launches already declared unfit and abandoned have been pressed into "special service," ignoring the mobile courts and law enforcers.

An inquiry committee recently examined 123 launches and identified 25 of them as unfit and 22 almost unfit.

But the unfit launches, excepting only three, resumed plying in the name of special service, sources said.

No cabin tickets were found at ticket counters but brokers in connivance with launch staffs were selling tickets at three to four times the normal fare.

Many brokers illegally occupy space in the vessels before they anchor at the terminal and charge Tk 50 to Tk 80 from each passengers to allow them to sit there.

But mobile courts were yet to take any steps to stop such illegal practices.

Barisal bound launches yesterday demanded Tk 185 per deck ticket against Tk 146.25 as shown in a BIWTA chart.

According to the BIWTA, launch fares have been hiked to Tk 0.90 per km from Tk 0.85 for a distance of up to 100 km andTk 0.75 per km from Tk 0.72 for a distance of over 100km.

Kamalapur railway station
Homebound passengers are facing serious troubles to reach trains as repair works of the station continue. No tickets are available now except that for standing in the compartments, railway officials said.

Normally 30 trains depart from the station but 38 trains left yesterday and 46 trains will leave today, they mentioned.

Around 25 thousand advance tickets for November 1 to 3 were sold against the normal capacity of 15 thousand. Extra compartments will be added with trains, sources said.

"Two to twelve extra compartments will be added with each train in the last two days before the Eid," said Nitendra Saha, Station Master at Kamalapur.

Sources said around 30 thousand tickets for October 31 to November 3 were taken by brokers in connivance with a section of railway staff, creating the ticket crisis.

Bus Terminals
A large number of passengers, who failed to procure advance tickets, left the capital by unfit buses under the nose of the law enforcers.

These buses left from Gabtali, Mohakhali and Jatrabari inter-district bus terminals in the name of 'extra service'.

Huge terrific jams were found on the city roads and particularly near the bus terminals.