LAHORE: The bus terminals and railway station witnessed rush of passengers heading for their native towns to celebrate Eid with their families.

A number of people belonging to cities and towns of Faisalabad, Multan, Gujrat, Rawalpindi, Muzaffargarh, Layyah, DG Khan, Rajanpur, Vehari, Khanewal, Kasur, Gujranwala, Sheikhupura, Nankana, Okara and Sahiwal work in Lahore’s government departments and private firms or doing labour or their own businesses. They start departing for their native towns a couple of days before Eid.

The government has announced five Eid holidays (July 17 to 21), which means people started departing from Lahore to their native stations on Wednesday. The private and government-run bus terminals at Badami Bagh (Lorry Adda), near Yateem Khana and Babu Sabu, Thokar Niaz Baig and Kalma Chowk were full of people. Long queues for tickets could be seen at Badami Bagh, Kalma Chowk and Yateem Khana (near Babu Sabu).

“I had tried to get ticket last (Wednesday) night but couldn’t succeed. Today, I have come here again to get the ticket on chance,” Nauman told this reporter at a terminal near Kalma Chowk.

According to company’s marketing manager Naeem Ahmed, 99pc of the tickets at all departure timings, including the additional ones, have already been sold to passengers in advance. “A majority of passengers prefer to use our service. Therefore, in such situations, our regular passengers use our online system and get tickets in advance,” he said.

A good number of people travel on roofs of buses or some specially created seats.

As usual, there were complaints of overcharging. “On Thursday, we impounded six buses at the city bus terminal near Yateem Khana and four at Badami Bagh Lorry Adda for overloading the passengers. Besides, we have imposed heavy fines on some of the ticket booking officials in the city,” Lahore’s Secretary (District Road Transport Authority) Chaudhry Iqbal said.

He said a number of passengers had already left for their native towns by Wednesday night. “According to the situation I am observing, 60 to 70pc of people have already left the city. And rest of the passengers left on Thursday night.”

He said the intercity bus operation at all terminals remained smooth as there were very few complaints of overloading and overcharging.

The city’s metro bus stations also witnessed rush of passengers travelling between Shahdara and Gajjumata and further to their towns bordering the Punjab capital, such as Sheikhupura and Kasur.

DCO Muhammad Usman said seven buses were impounded and he imposed heavy fines on some private bus operators for overcharging and overloading after he visited the Badami Bagh bus terminal on Thursday evening.

The National Highways and Motorway Police penalised some bus conductors for overcharging the passengers. According to a spokesman, the police present at the entry/exit points and toll plazas got the additionally charged money back and returned it to the passengers after they received telephone calls at 130 helpline.

Published in Dawn, July 17th, 2015

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