12.2 lakh people left Dhaka on Tuesday: Telco minister

Posts and Telecommunications Minister Mustafa Jabbar said around 12.2 lakh SIM users left Dhaka on Tuesday (18 April) to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.

Also, 667,783 entered Dhaka during this time, said the minister in a post from his Facebook page on Wednesday (19 April). However, this calculation is based on the average number of SIMs per person. No one under the age of 18 is included in this calculation.

The minister posted the statistics based on the SIM users of four major operators – Grameenphone Limited, Robi Axiata Limited, Banglalink Digital Communications and Teletalk Bangladesh Limited.

According to the data, a total of 302,284 users of Robi, 334,295 of Grameenphone, 573,509 of Banglalink and 18,190 of Teletalk SIM users left Dhaka on Tuesday.

Eid-ul-Fitr, the biggest religious festival of Muslims in the country, will be celebrated next Saturday or Sunday (22 or 23 April), depending on the sighting of the moon.

Wednesday was a public holiday for holy Shab-e-Qadr. A general holiday has been declared on 20 April under the executive powers of the prime minister. So, the last working day before Eid-ul-Fitr was Tuesday.

The number of people going home increased from Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

Meanwhile, the number of vehicles has increased on Dhaka-Tangail Highway and on the Bangabandhu Bridge link road as people started leaving capital Dhaka to celebrate Eid.

A total of 30,251 vehicles crossed Bangabandhu Bride in the last 24 hours, reports BSS. 

Bridge authority said 17,256 vehicles crossed Bangabandhu Bridge from Tangail end while 12,995 vehicles crossed the Bridge from Sirajganj end till 6am today.