40km tailback on Dhaka-Tangail road

A long tailback on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway has brought immense sufferings to homebound travellers ahead of Eid-ul-Azha.

"Vehicles from Dhaka and Gazipur are plying a four-lane highway up to Elengya in Tangail. But only a two-lane highway is available from Elengya to several northern districts," said Tangail Superintendent of Police (SP) Sanjib Kumar Rai.

"A 14km tailback has formed on the two-lane highway from Elengya to Bangabandhu Bridge due to the high number of vehicles on the road," he said.   

The passengers and transport workers have been left stranded in a 40km tailback on the road from Bangabandhu Bridge to Tangail's Pakulla area.

Vehicles have been moving slowly before coming to a complete standstill every 10 to 20 minutes. The traffic congestion has also extended to the Pakulla, Korotia bypass, Nagar Jalfai, Rabna bypass and Elengya bus stand areas.

"A record number of vehicles crossed the Bangabandhu Bridge over the last 24 hours," an official said.

“A total of 36,337 vehicles crossed the bridge from 6am on Friday to 6am on Saturday as opposed to the usual 15,000,” said an official.

"Vehicles were unable to gather any speed due to heavy traffic from Bangabandhu Bridge to Sirajganj's Hatikumrul intersection," said Traffic Inspector Eshrajul Haque.  

"The bridge was overloaded with vehicles from Friday morning to Saturday morning. Traffic over the bridge had to be suspended eight times during this period before gradually resuming around 11.30 am on Saturday,” said Traffic Inspector Iftekhar Nasir Rokan.

Over 700 policemen have been deployed to control the traffic congestion in various parts of Tangail, said Superintendent Sanjib Kumar Rai.