Every year before the Eid holidays hundreds of thousands of people leave the capital to celebrate Eid with their friends and families outside of Dhaka city. The rush of people leaving Dhaka right before Eid, therefore, is a common and predictable phenomenon. But because of poor preparations on part of the authorities, their journeys are never made easy and, in fact, often turn tragic. 

Tailbacks on highways are again making life difficult for those leaving the city this time around. Although the authorities have given many assurances of having taken enough measures to ensure adequate transports, transport operators themselves seem less optimistic, particularly in the event of bad weather. And as this newspaper reported, people were already caught in long tailbacks between Meghna Bridge and Bhaber Char Bazar for several hours on Wednesday, as well as on other major highways, even before the real rush to leave the capital began.

To cope with the mad rush, rickety vehicles on roads and dilapidated boats on river routes are frequently allowed to operate, risking lives. Time and again this has been the main cause of accidents and deaths. Yet, the authorities never seem to learn from past disasters, which continue to lead to the loss of more lives.

We understand that people want to reach their homes on time to celebrate Eid. But in order to make that happen, safety should not in any way be compromised. The authorities should pre-plan how to handle the rush of people leaving the capital, instead of allowing broken down transports to run and increase the chances of accidents.