Eid travelers faced mounting congestion near the Jamuna Bridge in Tangail on Thursday, even as parts of the Dhaka-Tangail highway through Gazipur eased. Stop-and-go traffic stretched 25 km from the bridge to the Tangail city bypass through 3 p.m., though Gazipur’s Chandra area cleared by afternoon.
To ease congestion at the bridge, authorities ran northbound traffic through both lanes from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. After that, northbound vehicles were restricted to their own lane.
At 9 a.m., the highway showed long lines of vehicles. Buses and trucks stood still in place. Truck driver Motahar Hossain, stuck in traffic at Bikramhati in Sadar upazila, said he had been waiting for about an hour. He had left Dhaka at 11 p.m. the night before, he said, with the entire route congested.
Nazrul Islam of Sirajganj, stuck in traffic at Pauli in Kalihati upazila, said he had landed at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport from Malaysia at midnight, then hired a taxi for Sirajganj. It had taken 9 hours to reach Tangail, he said.
Morning rain worsened the misery. Passengers riding in trucks were seen drenched. Fazlu Mia, a garment factory worker from Savar riding in a truck near the Tangail bypass, said: “I have been suffering all night in traffic. On top of that, the rain has left me exhausted.”
Women travelers faced greater hardship. Many had to enter homes along the highway just to use bathrooms.
Jamuna Bridge authorities said the heavy load of vehicles caused the jam. Roughly 17,000 to 18,000 vehicles cross daily under normal conditions, but the Eid holiday has tripled that volume.
Toll plaza sources said both lanes were used for northbound traffic in two stretches totaling nearly four hours to ease the jam — from 4:35 a.m. to 6:40 a.m. (2 hours 5 minutes) and again from 12:10 a.m. to 1:50 a.m. (1 hour 40 minutes). Pressure eased briefly but built up again. From 11 a.m., authorities resumed running northbound vehicles through both lanes.
Gazipur highway eases
After two days of severe congestion and hardship, Gazipur’s highways saw relief from Wednesday afternoon. The Dhaka-Tangail highway through Gazipur was largely free of major jams, with the road appearing nearly empty.
From Tuesday afternoon through Wednesday morning, both Gazipur highways saw heavy pressure from holiday travelers. Long jams and transport shortages followed. Some 20 to 25 km of the Dhaka-Tangail highway saw overnight gridlock, with travelers waiting hours to cross short distances.
Wednesday saw heavy traffic through 11 a.m., but conditions normalized rapidly through the afternoon. Highway traffic now flows smoothly.
The worst of the suffering in recent days centered on Chandra in the Dhaka-Tangail highway. By Wednesday afternoon, the scene was different. The familiar jams were gone, and so were the transport shortages. Passengers boarded preferred vehicles easily for their destinations.
Passenger Kabir Hossain said: “I came to Chandra today and saw no traffic jam; in fact, there are more vehicles than passengers. Conditions are fine here, but I’ve heard there’s some congestion before the Jamuna Bridge.”
Rajshahi-bound Himachal Paribahan driver Kamrul Islam said: “What we faced yesterday — even one-tenth of that pressure is gone today. Yesterday, vehicles filled with passengers in 10 minutes. Today, an hour passes and a vehicle still isn’t full.”
Travelers are heading home in relative comfort, said Sowgatul Alam, officer-in-charge of Naojor Highway Police Station. Extra police remain on duty in the Chandra area, he said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report