Dhaka is ready to please its residents’ appetite for enjoying the capital’s less polluted air and traffic free roads. The usual hustle and bustle of Dhaka has entered a short period of tranquility as millions of the dwellers have started to head out for ancestral home to celebrate the Eid-ul-Adha. Every year the residents of Dhaka get to see the deserted look of the capital during the two Eids, but especially during the Eid-ul-Adha.
During the Eid holidays thin traffic on the streets give the city a break from its trademark traffic jam, air pollution, loud horns, black smoke, dust, busy pedestrians, and long queues for public transportation. We have gone around the bend due to the horrendous traffic gridlock coupled with sound and dust pollution in regular time. But the Eid holidays gave us respite from the sufferings.
An astounding silence pervades the streets of this heaving capital during Eid holidays. A few cars whizzing by, rickshaw-pullers tinkling bells and triumphant people running home with sacrificial cattle after haggling – this is the usual scene of a vacant Dhaka City during Eid holidays. Eid holidays are the perfect time for a leisurely ride. It takes only 30 to 40 minutes to travel from one corner to another in Dhaka during Eid vacation. Driving in Dhaka is a nightmare for many, but the empty roads provide the rare opportunity of actually enjoying a ride.
Dhaka being faka (empty) during Eid holidays is not something to be proud of for any one of us. Empty Dhaka during Eid holidays exposes how inefficient and unplanned we are, with concentration of all major infrastructure including industry, school, collage, university, hospital and so on. Had we maintained the gradual expansion of Dhaka in a planned way, we would not see Dhaka in the list of the most unlivable cities of the world.
The empty roads point out how desperately we need proper infrastructure and facilities throughout the country, so that we can curb migration towards Dhaka. Otherwise, we will simply continue to overburden the capital city. So folks, Enjoy the empty roads until the city is loaded with heavy traffic again.
Eid Mubarak!
