Vehicles came almost to a halt on the Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue, as the entire capital was caught in severe gridlock Thursday. — FE Photo
The city witnessed severe traffic congestion Thursday, a day before the first weekend after beginning of the holy month of Ramadan. This caused immense sufferings to working people and commuters.
Most of the important city roads including Farmgate, Shahbagh, Airport Road, Elephant Road, Mirpur Road, Topkhana Road, Moghbazar, Malibagh, Gulshan, Banani, Tejgaon, Kakrail, Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue and Gulistan were seen blocked with hundreds of vehicles stranded for hours.
The sufferings were intensified as the long waiting hours were accompanied by sultry weather and rain together as people rushed to go to their village homes for the weekend or to banks as transaction hours have been shortened.
Many people also crowded city shopping malls and roadside shops for Eid shopping.
The city's traffic system almost collapsed with the start of Ramadan although the government announced several measures to relieve the city dwellers of traffic congestion during the fasting month.
The government declared schools closed from the first day of Ramadan and deployed even the armed police battalion for traffic control.
Apparently it seemed that all the steps for traffic management failed so far with the traffic authority blaming shortage of manpower in the department for the miserable situation.
It now takes at least two hours to travel to any place within the city. The journey takes more than three hours during the office break at 3.30 pm till 5.00 pm in the afternoon.
The unruly driving and parking by city bus drivers and other vehicles including abnormal number of rickshaws have led to the jams. Also crowds at roadside shops have made the traffic situation worse these days. Masud Hasan went to his office at Paltan from Uttara on Thursday after a one-and half hour journey. It took him two and half hours on Wednesday. For that, he has decided to change his usual route.
"There is a regular gridlock which starts from the Banani flyover on the airport road. That's why I changed my route today via Kuril-Biswa road. This reduced my travel time by an hour," said Mr Masud.
The residents of Mirpur face regular hassle and inordinate delay on roads as disorderly drivers pick up and drop passengers haphazardly interrupting smooth traffic flow.
There is a long signals, stopping vehicles moving from Bijoy Soroni towards Farmgate or Tejgaon without any reason.
Md Faruk reached Motijheel from Mirpur after two hours. But he had to take a rickshaw from Paltan to reach his office timely only to get stuck up in front of the Baitul Mokarram mosque. On Wednesday, it took two and half hours. Finally he started walking from Rajuk point after he was stranded in the signal for about 40 minutes.
Hasan Shahriar, a resident of the city's Najira Bazar area came to Paltan after a one-hour journey by rickshaw which is usually a 15- minute ride.
There is no traffic personnel deployed in the lanes of the old city. This causes untold sufferings to the city dwellers.
People are now-a-days afraid of moving in and out of the city as it is hard to predict how long they will take to reach their destinations or whether they can complete the tasks they are supposed to do within a certain time limit.
However, the city dwellers enjoy an unusually free road immediately before or after Iftar time. It now takes only 15 to 20 minutes to reach Mirpur from Motijheel. People can reach any destination enjoying free roads until 8.00 in the evening.
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