Slow traffic pace on highways before holidays begin

Traffic is already sluggish on highways leading out of Dhaka with a large number of vehicles carrying people heading home on holidays and trucks ferrying sacrificial animals.

Comilla CorrespondentTangail, Gazipur and sbdnews24.com
Published : 1 Oct 2014, 12:33 PM
Updated : 1 Oct 2014, 12:33 PM

People are rushing back to their ancestral homes to spend the Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja vacations with their loved ones.

The public holidays for the two biggest religious festivals of the Muslims and the Hindus will begin from Oct 4, but people are already leaving the capital with schools shutting for the celebrations and a weekend lengthening the vacation time.

As a result the number of vehicles carrying passengers and animals for Eid-ul-Azha sacrifices has surged on the highways, say Highway Police.

The traffic rush quickly turns into severe congestion every time a vehicle breaks down, causing a great deal of suffering to home-bound passengers.

OC Jubaidul Alam of Gorai Highway Police Station in Tangail said traffic had been sluggish on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway since Tuesday night. The situation worsened with traffic bottlenecks developing in several places, adding to passenger woes.

“A truck broke down at Natiaparha on this highway, and before it could be removed a long queue of stranded vehicles formed on both sides,” he said.

There has been recurring jams at Chandra Konabari, Mouchak, Safipur, the Kaliakair bypass and a 15-km stretch up to Jirani Bazar, said Md Shahriar Hassan, OC, Salna Highway Police Station, in Gazipur.

“A truck carrying cattle broke down at around 6am in front of the Cadet College on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway. This caused a jam, affecting traffic up to Jirani, in Koikair,” Hassan said.

He said vehicles had been moving haltingly on that section of the highway till about 1pm.

Besides, he said, traffic movement had been affected in the Shafipur and Konabari areas because of highway restoration work involving the cleaning of drains on both sides of the highway.

Surajgunj cattle trader Md Kamal Hossain told bdnews24.com: “I set out for Gazipur with a cattle truck at dawn, and it was evening by the time I reached there.”

Roksana, a Rangpur-bound passenger of the Shyamali Bangla Paribahan said: “To avoid the crowd, I wanted leave Dhaka with my children quite early. But traffic jams did not leave us. We started from Dhaka at 6am but could cross Chandra of Gazipur only at 11am.”

The condition of the Dhaka-Mymensingh Highway, however, appeared to have improved.

Md Sanowar Hossain, OC, Maona Highway Police Station, in Sreepur, said: “The highway is being widened to four lanes. But there is no traffic jam despite the expansion work because of effective traffic management.”

Additional Superintendent of Traffic Police, Gazipur area, Hossain Mohammad Kabir Bhuiyan said 754 policemen were working at three levels on the highway in his area.
 

</div> </p><p> <div class="embed"> <iframe height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FOdScBNTOSY" width="640"/> </div>  </p>