2m SIM card holders left Dhaka in 2 days

More than 2 million mobile phone SIM card holders left the capital city in the two days on 6 and 7 April before the Eid-ul-Fitr, said the sources from mobile phone operator companies.

At the same time, over 950,000 SIM card holders entered Dhaka from different districts, they added.

A SIM card holder has been referred to as a person (unique user). They could be accompanied by elderly people and children, who do not use mobile phones.

As a result, it is tough to get an actual number of people who left Dhaka before the Eid.

Though the government holiday for the Eid-ul-Fitr will begin on 10 April, people started leaving the capital city on 4 April (Thursday), the last working day of the week. There were weekly holidays on Friday and Saturday while Sunday marked the holiday for Shab-e-Qadr.

According to a survey, conducted by transport expert professor Md Hadiuzzaman of Department of Civil Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2023, over 12 million people leave Dhaka in four days before the Eid. This means, over 3 million leave Dhaka every day.

Over 10 million people left Dhaka in five days before the Eid-ul-Fitr last year.