The rush of Eid travellers appeared to have reached its peak on Friday amidst collapse of schedules of trains and long-route buses, huge traffic gridlocks on highways and at ferry terminals.

Passengers remained stuck for several hours inside trains and at stations following derailment of a train compartment in Tangail, snapping the rail communications between the districts in the south and the north and the rest of the country for more than three hours.

Holidaymakers are also feared to suffer today (Saturday) as the Bangladesh Railway authorities deferred the schedules of some major trains on these routes on Friday as the Eid-ul-Azha, one of the two biggest festivals of the Muslims, will be celebrated on August 12.

Nagging traffic gridlocks on the Dhaka-Tangail national highway and slow movement of vehicles on the Bangabandhu Bridge West–Sirajganj highway following heavy presence of vehicles also made the journey of bus passengers painful.

Bus passengers on southern routes also faced gridlocks due to congestion at ferry terminals.

On the day, major intercity trains on country’s northern and southern districts ran behind the schedules for third consecutive day.

On Friday, from capital’s Kamalapur railway station, Rangpur Express on the Dhaka–Rangpur route started seven hours late, Dhumketu Express on the Dhaka–Rajshahi route started four hours and 50 minutes late, Sundarban Express on the Dhaka–Khulna route started two hours and 38 minutes late and Ekota Express on the Dhaka-Panchagarh route started one and a half hours late, compared to their schedules.

The situation became highly vexing following the derailment in Tangail as it disrupted the movement of at least 22 trains between Rajshahi–Khulna and Dhaka.

The Bangladesh Railway in a press release said that following the derailment, Silk City Express on the Dhaka–Rajshahi route would be delayed by at least six hours and 20 minutes, Padma Express on the Dhaka–Rajshahi route by at least six hours, Chitra Express on the Dhaka–Khulna route by at least four hours, Benapole Express on the Dhaka–Benapole by two hours, Drutajan Express on the Dhaka–Panchagarh route by at least one hour and 45 minutes and  some other trains on Dhaka–northern routes would be delayed by less than one hour.

Till writing this report at 6:00pm, Ekota Express was still stuck at the Tangail station.

BR director (traffic and public relations) Mahbubur Rahman told New Age that they had no instructions to run extra trains on these routes to tackle the problems.

During a visit to the Kamalapur railway station, railway minister Nurul Islam Sujan said that 32 trains on northern routes had to cross Bangabandhu Bridge while each train took 30 to 40 minutes to cross.

For this reason the trains were not on time and the problem would be solved when a second bridge would be constructed on the River Jamuna by 2023, he added.

The New Age Correspondent in Sirajganj reported that railway communications of Dhaka with northern and southern districts resumed around three hours after a compartment of Sundarban Express on the Dhaka–Khulna route derailed a few metres west of the Bangabandhu Bridge at 1:20pm.

The rail service was restored at around 4:30pm, said Mizanur Rahman, Bangladesh Railway’s divisional railway manager (Pakshey).

At the Gabtoli inter-district bus terminal, people suffered as schedules of buses became useless due to gridlocks on highways and Shimulia ferry ghat.

Our Correspondent in Tangail reported that the vehicles on almost the entire 65-km Dhaka–Tangail national highway became immobile on Friday after a toll plaza at the west side of Bangabandhu Bridge was closed for an hour at around 11:45am due to huge pressure of vehicles from Dhaka.

The vehicles were seen to cross the entire highway at a very slow pace till writing this report at 8:00pm, testing the nerve of the passengers and transport workers.

The New Age Sirajganj Correspondent also reported that a day-long traffic gridlock was seen on the 18-km stretch between Mulibari rail crossing and Hatikumrul intersection on the Bangabandhu Bridge West–Sirajganj highway due to huge rush of vehicles out of the capital.

Bogura additional superintendent of highway police Md Shahidullah said that the vehicles moved at a snail’s pace because of the damaged Nalka Bridge and the narrow Ichhamati Bridge.

On the highway, many passengers were seen to travel on trucks that carried cattle to Dhaka.

Our Correspondent in Munshiganj reported that on Friday morning around 900 vehicles were stranded in long queues up to Shimulia ghat for crossing the River Padma.

The situation remained almost the same all day long while all 18 ferries, 87 launches and more than 300 speedboats operated on the Shimulia-Kathalbari channel.

The New Age Correspondent in Manikganj reported that till Friday morning vehicles were moving slow on the Dhaka-Aricha highway while there was about a 20-km long queue of vehicles at Paturia ghat to cross the river for entering 21 south-western districts.

As the day passed by the congestion on the road eased in the evening.

Manikganj superintendent of police Rifat Rahman Shamim said that too many vehicles gathered at Paturia as the ferry movement was disrupted on Shimulia-Kathalbari channel on Thursday.

In the ghat area passengers alleged that the launches were overloaded while the authorities turned a blind eye.

Meanwhile, bus passengers on different routes, as in the day before, alleged charging extra money.

Nur Siddique, a passenger on the Dhaka-Manikganj route, alleged that he was charged Tk 200 for a ticket on the route by Village Line in place of the normal Tk 70 fare.

‘Passengers are even forced to pay Tk 400 for the same tickets by transports like Padma Line and Selfie Paribahan,’ he added.

Road transport and bridges minister Obaidul Quader on the day visited the Gabtoli bus terminal where he said that there were no problems on the highways and action would be taken against charging increased fare from passengers.

A huge rush of passengers was also seen at the Sadarghat launch terminal in the capital from morning.