Blockade by quota protesters stokes fear of congestion on Dhaka roads

Protestors calling for the scrapping of the quota system for government jobs have blocked roads in several parts of Dhaka, halting traffic on many of the capital’s roads around noon on Wednesday.

The Dhaka Metropolitan Police traffic control room said that around 12:15pm, protesters had blocked the road at the Science Laboratory intersection, Dhaka University’s Nimtali area, and Mohakhali’s Amtali. Reports say they have also taken to the streets in other areas.

Nahid Alam, who drives a car that can be rented for trips, says that he started work at 7am in the morning and has managed to make only two trips until noon.

In the morning, he went from Mohammadpur to Motijheel and then from Motijheel to Banani. On his way back from Banani, he got into a traffic jam around 11:30am.

Nahid says, “CNG is not available. There are long queues at every pump. And, on top of all that, I am burning gas while stuck in traffic. I’m worried I'll run out of gas on the road."

However, the traffic police on duty on the road say that the traffic on the road started to decrease before 10 am on Wednesday. A traffic policeman named Borhanuddin, on duty at Bangla Motor, said the situation was normal around 11am, but that there was usually more traffic in the morning.

Helper Al Amin of Baisakhi Transport said that he had been instructed to wrap up trips by 10am. They found the road empty till 11 o'clock. He entered Dhaka in the morning and is now moving towards Savar.