As Eid-ul-Fitr holiday came to an end people from south-western districts started returning to their workstations in the capital but the journey is taking more than 12 hours for many due to gridlock at Daulatdia ferry terminal. Shariful Islam, a trader from Barishal lying on the engine cover of a Dhaka-bound bus on Sunday morning, said he started around 7 pm on Saturday from his house and got on the bus around 9 pm. His bus was standing still three kilometers away from the terminal as he was talking to the UNB reporter. Also read: Dhaka-bound people suffer for 10-km gridlock near Daulatdia Like Shariful, hundreds of passengers were seen waiting to cross the river as the long tailback of vehicles on the Dhaka-Khulna highway crossed six kilometers and kept getting longer by the hour. To decrease the pressure on the terminal police have started stopping vehicles 13 kilometers from the terminal near the Ahladipur area in Rajbari sadar upazila.Hundreds of private vehicles reached the terminal crossing an extra eight-kilometer path from Padmar Mor and Jamidar Bridge area through Ujan Char and Char Daulatdia. Some drivers complained local influential people and brokers were charging extra money from the drivers of goods-laden vehicles with the help of police as they were given priority for crossing the river. Abul Bashar, a fruits trader from Barguna said he started around 8 pm with 22 tonnes of watermelon on a covered van to Dhaka and got stuck in the traffic around 11 pm. He said, “I had to collect a ticket paying Tk 4,000 instead of regular Tk 1,800 as they were allowing us to pass specially. Yet a huge number of my watermelons perished due to long 13 hours of wait amid heat.” According to the Daulatdia office of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA), 11, 593 vehicles crossed the Padma River in the last 24 hours till Sunday 6 am through ferry from Daulatdia terminal. Also read: Ferry services resume on Paturia-Daulatdia route after 4 hours Md Shihab Uddin, manager of BIWTA Daulatdia office, said a record number of vehicles have crossed the river from this terminal in 24 hours. “On Saturday noon two of the 21 ferries operating on Daulatdia-Paturia route became disable but both of them resumed operation again in the evening. Currently all the ferries are operating from five terminals but due to worn-out roads and increased pressure of all the vehicles of Shimulia-Banglabazar route there is the long tailback”, said the BIWTA official. Meanwhile, around 30,000 passengers crossed the river by 166 launches from Daulatdia terminal, said Nurul Anwar, spokesperson for Aricha Launch Owners’ Association in Daulatdia. He said after 10 pm Saturday launch trips were reduced considering risk as most of the launches were carrying almost double their capacity of passengers.

Accelerating infrastructural development, ensuring utility services and upgrading education and medical services in rural areas may help engage the large number of people returning to their villages losing the sources of their income in the wake of COVID-19 fallout.

Another group of Bangladeshi nationals, who got stuck in India amid its lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, returned home through Benapole on Tuesday.

As part of effort taken by the government, 318 more Bangladeshis returned home from Delhi and Chennai in two special flights on Saturday.   Of the returnees, 151 came from New Delhi by a special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines while 167 other came from Chennai by another special flight of US-Bangla Airlines, according to Bangladesh High Commission in New Delhi.   Most of the returnees are patients who got stuck in India due to current lockdown there amid coronavirus outbreak. Students are also there among the returnees.

Although 26,843 people have recently returned home from abroad in four districts of the division, only 1,747 of them are currently undergoing home quarantine.   The scenario has exposed the entire division to the risk of a possible coronavirus outbreak as specialists repeatedly described the overseas returnees as prime carriers of the virus into Bangladesh.   They, particularly those who returned from European countries and China, were asked to isolate themselves to contain the spread of Coronavirus inside the country.   Since there's no vaccine, physicians said awareness is the key to protect human beings from the virus.   But most of the returnees paid no heed to the authority’s instruction of staying in home quarantine. Mobile courts fined some of them for breaching quarantine rules.   According to the divisional health office, 318 people were sent into quarantine in the division on Sunday, taking the number of total quarantined people to 1,747.   Of them, 718 are in quarantine in Sylhet, 208 in Sunamganj, 331 in Habiganj and 383 in Moulvibazar.   The number of quarantined people is only 6.5 percent of the total overseas returnees. Locals fear that the virus may spread as a huge number of returnees are freely moving around.   Local administration, however, assured that they are taking strict measure so that overseas returnees complete quarantine period.   Maulana Abul Hossain, a Union Parishad Chairman of Sylhet’s Kanaighat upazila, said the upazila administration sought a list of overseas returnees in the area. Besides, awareness announcements were being raised through made mosques and overseas returnees were asked not to go to mosque within 14 days.   Meanwhile, a person with symptoms of Covid-19 was taken to the isolation unit of Sylhet Sahid Shamsuddin Ahmed Hospital on early Sunday. Currently, four patients are being treated at the unit.   Anisur Rahman, assistant director at Sylhet divisional health office, said a total of 1,747 people were quarantined at their homes in the division since March 10. Of them, 67 people were released on Sunday on completion of quarantine term.