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Risky journey by trucks for happy Eid reunion

Raihan Sabuktagin
As Eid approaches every year, thousands of people, especially the working class, leave Dhaka by trucks and lorries to celebrate the festival with their families in villages.
Though risky, day labourers, rickshaw-pullers and construction workers find it cheaper to travel by trucks during the Eid .rush when bus tickets get scarce and costlier.
The truck drivers, on the other hand, get an extra earning source before Eid.
The trucks coming from northern districts with vegetables and other goods are unloaded at Karwan Bazar and then return with the working class people.
Mofizar Rahman, a mason who came to Karwan Bazar to ride a truck along with his wife
and three children, said he went to Gabtoli terminal to get bus tickets for Gaibandha, his village home, but he could not afford to buy tickets at high fare.
"Journey by a truck is not comfortable. It is too risky, yet I decided to take the trip. The fare is within my reach,” said Mofizar who had in tire past travelled by truck several times and is well awareofthepainsofsuch travel.
Passengers who regularly travel by trucks know the pickup points -- Karwan Bazar, Motijheel, Satrasta crossing and Aminbazar.
Trucks that enter the city with goods return empty or halfloaded, giving opportunities to the poor passengers to go to their villages. Before Eid, the truck drivers raise the fare and take as many passengers as they can, ignoring the risk of accidents.
"The usual fare by truck to the
northern districts is Tk 50 to Tk 70, but at the moment it ranges between Tk 100 and Tk 140," Mofizar added.
The passengers know the dangers and difficulties in a journey by truck -- the wind, branches of roadside trees and sudden application of brakes. The jolts and jerks can even throw a passenger off the truck, if he is not alert.
Akramul Hossain, driver of a Thakurgaon-bound truck, regularly carries passengers to the northern district. He charges Tk 130 from each passenger.
Though the truck helper alert the passengers to any danger, sometimes sleeping passengers in the night trip fall off the truck, he admitted.
Asked about the role of highway police, he said; "I have to pay the police for each trip. So it does not matter what I carry — people
or goods."
He said passenger give extra 'security' for him as robbers often attack trucks by blocking roads. "If 1 have 30 to 50 people with me, the highwaymen would not dare to attack. But I know they may get on my truck in the guise of passengers."
Drivers said around two lakh people leave Dhaka by trucks during Eid season.
An official of highway police said management of transports carrying millions of people within 5/6 days from tire city is really hard. Despite the shortage of manpower, they try to handle the rush to ensure safe journey of the homebound people.
“We can stop buses and trucks carrying extra passengers, but we are aware of the shortage of transports during Eid when lakhs of people go home. I think we should not create anyobstacles,” he said.