Dhaka traffic stalls as overturned van blocks key road

It has taken nearly six hours for a covered van that overturned after colliding with a bus at Bijoy Sarani to be removed from the road.

The accident occurred in the early hours on Thursday. The van was finally removed at 9:15 am. The blocking of the major Dhaka thoroughfare created a severe traffic congestion for commuters on the last working day of the week.

The freight van, travelling towards Bijoy Sarani from the Aeroplane Intersection, collided with a bus coming from Farm Gate around 3:30 am and overturned.

The bus was removed from the road relatively soon but it took much longer to remove the covered van, said Shobhon Chandra Hore, assistant commissioner of Tejgaon Traffic Police.

A crane lifted the van from the road and normal traffic resumed at 9:15 am, he said.

"The bus was removed at around 7 am but we needed a bigger crane to lift the large freight van. Also, we had to focus on the safety and security of people conducting the rescue operations," the police official said when asked why it took so long to remove the van.

The traffic jams across Dhaka on Thursday morning were a result of this accident, he said.

"It rippled through the capital starting from the airport area in Uttara to Bijoy Nagar."

However, traffic issues will now be resolved fairly quickly as the van has been removed, he said.