Trains stuffed with passengers left Dhaka on Tuesday as public holiday for Durga Puja celebration starts from today, which will be followed by the weekend of Friday and Saturday, bringing a rare four-day break from work. 聽
The two-day Durga Puja holiday will end tomorrow.
Anticipating the huge increase in passenger pressure, Bangladesh Railway decided to run four special trains from Tuesday till October 4.
The pressure of passengers started right from Tuesday morning when many people were seen leaving the city on trains from the Dhaka Railway station, popularly known as Kamalapur rail station.
Some trains were seen leaving with passengers riding on the roofs illegally.
The four special trains are running on the Dhaka-Chattogram, Chattogram-Dhaka and Dhaka-Cox鈥檚 Bazar-Dhaka routes, railway officials said.
Dhaka divisional railway manager Mohiuddin Arif said that on the day all train tickets had been sold out.
He, however, said that the passenger pressure on the day was similar to that of the Thursday nights.
鈥楢s people got four days off many of them are leaving Dhaka,鈥� Arif said.
The officer also said on Tuesday afternoon that the pressure of passengers was high between morning and noon and was likely to increase by Tuesday night.
Marking the celebration of puja, the railway also cancelled the weekly day-off of Madhumati Express and Padma Express, both the intercity trains on Rajshahi-Dhaka-Rajshahi route till October 4.
Durga Puja started from September 28 and will end tomorrow.
Educational institutions remain closed for different periods between September 28 and October 9 across the country for Durga Puja and other occasions.