Vehicles stuck in a traffic jam extending from the bus terminal to the Kolatali Dolphin intersection in Cox's Bazar tourist town -FE Photo COX'S BAZAR, Dec 14: Tourist town Cox's Bazar now mostly remains in a big mess due to traffic congestion resulting from unauthorised parking, inconveniencing smooth movement of vehicles as well as pedestrians.
To sum up, Cox's Bazar, one of the most popular tourist attractions in Bangladesh, has now become a city of traffic jams, for the situation.
The entire town remains in the grip of traffic jam for almost half the day. Especially, in Kolatali beach area, buses parked illegally on the road and buses coming from far away entering the town add to trafficdisorder. As a result, tourists and locals suffer immensely.
In addition to causing sufferings to tourists and locals, long traffic jam also eats up valuable time of office-goers and school and-college going children.
A severe traffic gridlock ensued in the town around 9am on Friday (December 13). During this time,townspeople experienced a complete traffic disorder extending from the bus terminal to the Kolatali Dolphin intersection.
Local resident Jahangir Selim said, "There is a long traffic jam every morning. Even if you go to office or work, you have to leave home long before. Due to negligence of the authorities and unauthorisd parking of cars everywhere, traffic jam has become severe.
Even though there remain enough traffic policemen, traffic jamoccurs due to various irregularities.
It is important to find a way out of the prevailing traffic disorder."
Cox's Bazar International University teacher Raihatul Gir Kasba said
there occurs a huge traffic jam on the road every day. Intensity of traffic jam increases especially on Fridays and Saturdays. Working hours are wasted when people get stuck in traffic jam for hours.
Private employee Ataullah Khaled said there is observed severe traffic jam from the bus terminal to the Kolatoli Dolphin intersection in the months of December, January and February.
Traffic congestion increases especially in the morning, due to which tourists and common people suffer.
After being stuck in traffic jam for a long time, many are forced to walk from the jail gate to Kolatoli.
Student Sadek Mahmud Simran said, "I was stuck in traffic jam for about an hour in the morning. My class was at 9am and I missed it though I left home one hour earlier. There occurs severe traffic
jam on this road every day. There is no visible initiative by the authorities to resolve the crisis.
Traffic Police Cox's Bazar Additional Superintendent of Police Md Jasim Uddin Chowdhury said, "Now there are a lot of vehicles on the road, so there is some problem. The Roads and Township Department was supposed to widen the U-turn area. If they had done the work, suffering would have been a little less."
On the question of direct entry of vehicles at Kolatoli and Dolphin intersections, he said, reserve tourist
buses are allowed to enter the city based on application of tourists through OBT apps.
He commented that if they were not allowed, the jam would have gone beyond Link Road.
Additional Superintendent of Police Jasim also said that the bus terminal was made operational four years ago. But due to various reasons, it has now become inactive.
He said that if the bus terminal is fully operational, traffic jam will reduce.
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