Crowds throng Ctg recreational places on Eid
People of Chittagong city and adjacent upazilas thronged the recreational places of the port city to add more delight to their Eid festival.
As Chittagong city lacks recreational places given the size of its population, the pressure of the visitors hugely increases during this festival of the country.
More than two thirds of the city dwellers left for their homes outside the city before the Eid to spend the holidays with their near and dear ones. Yet the amusement parks and recreational centres were full to the brim with people.
During this Eid festival, most of the city people thronged Patenga sea beach, the Naval Academy area, Butterfly Park, Foys Lake, Chittagong Zoo, Children's Parks at Agrabad, Kazir Dewri and Bahaddarhat Swadinata Park.
The largest crowd was seen at the Patenga sea beach area with nearly 1.5 lakh people visiting the place ever day during the first two days of the Eid.
Mohammad Shahabuddin, president of Patenga Sea Beach Shop Owners' Co-operative Association, said the Eid visitors were four to five times as many as the regular visitors.
To tackle different problems including children going missing, bullying of shop owners and other untoward situations on the occasion, Patenga Police Station set up an information and complaint centre for the first time in the sea beach area.
Prodip Kumar Das, officer-in-charge of Patenga Police Station, said, “To mitigate sufferings of the visitors, we have set up the information centre at the entrance of the beach.
"On the second day of Eid, 15 children were lost in the huge crowd and were handed over to their parents and relatives through our information centre.
“In addition, we are taking actions against different aggressive makeshift shop owners according to the complaints of the visitors,” he said.
The information centre would remain operative in the beach area for three to four more days as long as the rush of visiting people persists, he added.
Apart from the sea beach, a huge number of people thronged the Naval Academy area to enjoy the view of Karnaphuli river estuary and the Butterfly Park near the sea beach.
Two brothers, Jalal and Belal, were found enjoying the beauty of the sunset in the estuary of Karnaphuli, sitting on the roadside railing with a plateful of crab fry.
Both of them were from Dhaka and came to Chittagong to spend the Eid vacation. “It feels great to enjoy the Eid vacation in Chittagong amid hills, sea and natural beauty,” said one of them.
“We will spend the whole vacation of a week in Chittagong and are planning to come here again in the next Eid,” they added.
Chittagong Zoo is another recreational place for Chittagong people, which was crowded with visitors from different parts of Chittagong.
Monjur Morshed Chowdhury, veterinary officer of the zoo, said normally around 1,500 people used to visit the zoo daily. But the number increased to nearly 5,000 on the occasion of the Eid, he added.
Many people were found visiting the Foy's Lake amusement world adjacent to the zoo though there was low presence of visitors on the first day to the disappointment of the authorities of Concord Entertainment Co Ltd, the organisation that runs the amusement park.
ABM Enamul Hauqe, public relation executive of Concord Entertainment Co Ltd, said we expected around 2,000 visitors every day in this Eid season, but on the first day only 500-700 visitors arrived due to inclement weather.
From day two, the number of visitors at the amusement park rose to 2,500-3,000, he added.
Low income people were found crowding the children's parks at Agrabad, Kazir Dewri and Bahaddar Hat which charge from Tk 40 to 60 as entry fee.
Sahabuddin Ahmed Chowdhury, manager of Karnaphuli Children Park at Agrabad, said in this Eid season around 10,000 people had visited the park every day, which was slightly higher than the previous year.
Jafar Alam, a truck driver from Sitakunda, came to the park with his wife and three children. “To increase the joy of my children, I have brought them to this park,” he said.
“Previously I would go to Foy's Lake to enjoy the natural beauty of the lake. But now as the place is no more open to all and charges a hefty amount with a minimum of Tk 180 to Tk 350, I cannot afford visiting the place,” Jafar said.
He said the number of recreational centres should be increased in the city to accommodate the myriad of people. Echoing him, most of the visitors thronging different recreational places expressed the same demand.
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