Extended four-day holidays have begun as the largest religious festival of the Sanatan Hindu community, Sharadiya Durga Puja, is underway.
In addition to this, school and college students are also on an 11-day holiday, inclusive of the upcoming Fatiha-i-Yazdaham, Lakshmi Puja, Probarana Purnima, and the regular weekend, which began on 9 October.
With the long holiday now in motion, hundreds of thousands of people have already left the capital, leaving the streets of Dhaka largely empty and devoid of the usual traffic jams.
Even the pressure on public transport has significantly eased.
On Thursday (10 October) at 9am, various locations across Dhaka, including Mohakhali, Bijoy Sarani, Farmgate, Karwan Bazar, Banglamotor, Shahbagh, Gulistan, Rampura, and Badda, were found relatively empty of the familiar traffic congestion.
Despite this, many people continue to leave the city for different destinations, causing some bottlenecks at exit points such as Sayedabad and Gabtoli.
Long queues of buses were observed at these locations due to the increased demand at transport counters.
Maidul, an employee of a private company, had to work despite the public holiday and travelled from Kajla to Banglamotor.
“On regular days, it takes me about two hours to get to the office, with almost an hour just to cross Gulistan. But today, I arrived in no time. The roads are this empty only during Eid. It’s almost as if there’s no traffic at all," he said.
A female commuter from Badda remarked, “Every day, I travel from Badda to Mohakhali via Farmgate. Today, there was hardly any traffic, but very few vehicles are on the roads. I had to wait quite some time for a bus.”
Similarly, a helper for the Bangabandhu Airport Paribahan service, operating on the Uttara-Gulistan route, noted, “Normally, during office hours, our buses are packed with passengers, but today, due to the Puja holidays, there are far fewer passengers. We’re travelling with almost half of the seats empty. There are fewer people and private cars on the roads. Without the traffic, we reached our destination much faster.”
To commemorate Sharadiya Durga Puja, the interim government issued an executive order declaring a general holiday across the nation on Thursday (10 October).
Furthermore, according to the official government calendar, 11 and 12 October (Friday and Saturday) are the regular weekend holidays, and 13 October (Sunday) is a holiday for Puja.
Altogether, this marks the start of a four-day continuous holiday from Thursday.
According to the Ministry of Education’s annual calendar, the school and college holidays for Sharadiya Durga Puja, Fatiha-i-Yazdaham, Lakshmi Puja, and Probarana Purnima started on 9 October and will continue until 17 October (Thursday).
Since the following days, 18 and 19 October, fall on Friday and Saturday, educational institutions will reopen on 20 October.
In the midst of these holidays, 13 October marks the holiday for Vijayadashami, while Fatiha-i-Yazdaham will be observed on 15 October, and Lakshmi Puja and Probarana Purnima on 16 October.
However, the Ministry of Public Administration has clarified in a circular that essential services such as electricity, water, gas, and other fuels, fire services, port operations, sanitation, telecommunication, internet, postal services, and the vehicles and staff associated with these services will remain operational during the holiday period.
