The frantic rush of home-goers reached its peak in the city on Thursday as thousands of people headed their village homes to celebrate Eid-ul-Azha with their loved ones. Bangladesh celebrates Eid-ul-Azha, the second largest religious festival of Muslims on Sunday. The four-day Eid vacation begins on Friday. As it was the last working day for the government and semi-government officials and employees before Eid, lakhs of home-goers were seen departing the capital by buses, trains and water vessels enduring all the troubles of travelling. The bus terminals, Kamalapur Railway Station and the Sadarghat Ferry Terminal witnessed huge crowd since afternoon with the holidaymakers waiting for their transports to reach their desired destinations. All the trains, many buses and launches leaving Dhaka were packed like sardines. Many passengers alleged that the bus operators are charging extra fares taking the advantage of the shortage of vehicles to meet the demand of huge holidaymakers.  The vacation exodus will continue until Saturday, a day ahead of Eid,  says General Secretary of National Committee to Protect Shipping, Road and Railways Ashish Kumar Dey. As schools and other educational institutions remained closed, many left for homers  early to avoid hassles, he said. Read: Trading in Eid cattle markets yet to gain momentum Replying to a question, Ashis Kumar said more than one crore people are expected to leave the city for celebrating the Eid in their respective village homes. “Around 30 lakh people have already left Dhaka since July 5.” He said more than 25 lakh people, mostly government and semi-government officials and employees and their family members, were supposed to leave the city by Thursday night, while 35 lakh will go to their village homes by Friday and the rest by Saturday night. At Gabtoli bus terminals it was seen that the long-distance buses were leaving the inter-district terminal almost timely since Thursday morning. “The pressure of passengers has increased in Gabtoli bus stand in the evening.  So far, there is no report of schedule disruption of long-distance buses till Thursday evening,” said Assistant Commissioner of Traffic (Darus Salam) Iftekharul Islam. He said buses have been leaving the terminal smoothly without disrupting any schedule of departure times, he added. Superintendent of highway police (Cumilla) Rahmatullah said though there was a huge flow of outgoing vehicles from Dhaka to Chattogram on Dhaka-Chattogram Highway from Daudkandi Bridge, there is no traffic tailback on the 4-lane highways from Thursday morning to 8:30 pm. He said an additional number of highway police remained deployed at different strategic points alongside an adequate number of patrol teams to ensure the safety of passengers and maintain discipline. A senior officer of Highway police (Gazipur) said the Dhaka-Tangail road remained smooth in the afternoon, except for tailbacks near Bangabandhu Bridge in the morning. The southern district-bound passengers this time are going to their village homes smoothly, thanks to the newly opened Padma Bridge. Additional SP (Srinagar circle) of Munshigangj Tanvir Hadider said holidaymakers were reaching their destination smoothly through the Padma Bridge and Dhaka-Mawa expressway. “Vehicles on both sides of the bridge have been running smoothly as no tailback was seen from the morning to till 7:00 pm.” However, the Mawa launch terminal witnessed very few passengers unlike past Eid festival as many holidaymakers are going through the Padma Bridge.