The city dwellers have started returning to the hustle and bustle of Dhaka after celebrating Eid-ul-Azha with near and dear ones as workdays in the government offices resume today after the six-day official holidays. 

Most of the travellers enjoyed hassle-free journeys more or less; except for the passengers of 21 districts of south and southwestern districts who faced unbearable sufferings at the Daulatdia and Mawa ferry ghats in Rajbari and Madaripiur, reports our correspondents.

People at the Daulatdia ghat had to wait for 10 to 11 hours due to poor management in ferry services.

Many were seen leaving their direct service buses and reached the ferry ghat braving five to six kilometres tailback. After crossing the river either by a speedboat or a launch, travellers rode another bus to reach their respective destinations in the capital, reports our Manikganj correspondent.

Thousands of people were seen stranded at the Daulatdia ghat for hours due to overflow of buses and disruption in ferry service due to damaged landing stations at the terminal, officials of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation (BIWTC) at the ghat, said.

“I reached the ghat around 2:00am and it's 1:00pm now. But we are yet to cross the ferry ghat,” Shoyeb Ahmed, who works at a private company, told The Daily Star.

Shafiqul Islam, manager (commerce) of BIWTC at Daulatdia ghat, said three out of four landing stations at the terminal were in operation as river erosion damaged the rest.

“Out of the total 19 ferries, 14 are in operation and the rest are being repaired,” said Abdus Sattar, manager (marine) of BIWTC.

He also said as there was huge pressure of vehicles, gridlock was created at the ferry ghat and several hundred vehicles got stranded for hours to cross the Padma river since yesterday morning.

On Kawrakandi-Shimulia river route, several hundred passenger vehicles stretching around three kilometres were seen waiting since yesterday noon at the Kawrakandi ghat, reports a correspondent from Madaripur.

A BIWTC official at the ghat said around 200 speedboats, 87 launches and 17 ferries are in operation at present which are not sufficient to meet the huge flow of passengers.

Apart from this, passengers were seen entering the capital through Sadarghat launch terminal, Kamalalpur Railway Station and different bus terminals without any major hassle.

There was no tailback on the Dhaka-Tangail highway, except during the time of a road accident there,  reports our Tangail correspondent.

During a visit to Mohakhali bus terminal yesterday, people were seen returning to Dhaka with smiling faces reflecting the joyous moments they had spent with their family members.

On Dhaka-Chittagong and Dhaka-Sylhet highways, passengers traveled smoothly almost all the way.

In Kamalapur Railway Station, all the trains were seen jam-packed with passengers.

Anowar Ali, a Dhaka University student hailing from Rajshahi, said, “Though I could not find any seat, I prefer travelling on trains because buses may face gridlock on the roads.”

As many as 55 trains from different districts came to Kamalapur yesterday. Of them, nine were delayed by one to three hours, a railway official at the station said.

A similar scenario was seen at Sadarghat. All the launches that came to the terminal were overcrowded.

The returning passengers, however, faced transport crisis in the capital after arriving at the bus, launch and railway terminals.