40km tailback on Dhaka-Tangail-Bangabandhu Bridge highway
A 40-kilometre tailback has been created on Dhaka-Tangail- Bangabandhu Bridge Highway due to a heavy rush of vehicles.
The traffic congestion started since early Friday from the eastern side of Bangabandhu Bridge to Gullah of Basail upazila.
Home-bound people, especially women and children, are suffering due to the traffic jams as it is taking two to three times longer to reach the destination.
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Kamrul Islam left Dhaka this morning for his ancestral home in Faridpur area of Pabna. In 12 hours, he still could not reach Bangabandhu Bridge, which is only a two-hour journey.
Kamrul said his children fell sick as they had no choice but to eat biscuits and bread at the roadside stall.
"Think about what women are going through on such a long journey," the passenger told The Business Standard over the phone.
He said the buses run for 10 minutes and then stop for a long time
Truck driver Raju Ahmed said it took more than two hours to reach Elenga, a 25-kilometer road from Kortia in Tangail.
Bus passenger Hannan said, "I left Mohakhali at dawn and reached Elenga in the evening. I don't know when I will reach Rangpur."
Superintendent of Police Mohammad Kaiser said more than 700 police personnel have been deployed on the highway to ease traffic congestion.
Police have been on duty on the road skipping sleep at night, he added.
The Bangabandhu Bridge authorities stopped collecting toll for one hour and 40 minutes as it took time to remove the vehicles involved in the road accident on Bangabandhu Bridge on Thursday night.
Due to this there is a traffic congestion on the highway.
"We will not return home without making sure people return home. There is pressure of vehicles going to North Bengal on the highway. The police are on full-time duty to reduce traffic congestion," he added.
