It was a hectic day on Sunday at the Sadarghat Launch Terminal on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha.
The rooftops of the around 25 launches were crammed with holidaymakers on Sunday noon.
Schoolboy Robiul Hawlader Mridul and his grandmother Rawshan Ara, who were heading to Barisal, came to the pier at 10am to take a launch to Bakerganj.
"Red Sun took extra passengers. So, we had looked for Saikat but could not find it. Time is passing away. We'll have to take any launch that we get now," Rawshan Ara told bdnews24.com at 2:30pm.
Marine safety and traffic management department senior director Muhammad Rafikul Islam said 54 launches had left the terminal for Barisal, Barguna and Bhola from the morning until 2pm.
"Nearly 30 others will leave for Chandpur, Barguna, Bhola, Patuakhali, Barisal, Madaripur and several other districts until midnight," he added.
According to him, 120 launches left the terminal on Saturday, 97 on Friday and 85 on Thursday.
"We can't manage the excessive number of passengers even after introducing special services. Usually, the number of passengers is 20,000-25,000 daily. But on Saturday, around 1.5 million passengers left the terminal," Rafikul said.
When asked about overloaded launches, he said, "We were able to prevent launches from carrying passengers on roofs until Friday. But on Saturday there were just too many people. Now we are watching whether any launch gets seriously overloaded."
He also claimed that the launches were charging fares fixed by authorities.
Traffic inspector Mohammad Moinuddin said, "The pressure of passengers was high in the morning. It has decreased now (afternoon) and will ease further in the night."
He said launches will leave on Eid morning.
bdnews24.com/pb/bd/2234h
Source: bdnews24.com
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