Outbound transports trapped in long tailbacks

FE Team | Published: October 04, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

Yasir Wardad
Thousands of home-goers got trapped in nagging traffic congestions on a number of routes from the capital and suffered Friday as a five-day vacation began, witnesses said.
Large numbers of vehicles carrying homebound people on the occasion Eid-ul-Azha and Durga Puja got caught on all the major highways. Bad road conditions coupled with huge rush caused the traffic mess.    
Because of the intolerable traffic jams, the holidaymakers were seen spending several hours in even passing a distance of 10-15 kilometres on the day.
It appeared to be one of the worst nightmares especially for women and children.
The scenes were almost same even for the railway and launch passengers who had to wait 3-4 hours at the respective stations to get into their transport because of what was described as "schedule breakdown".
Tens of thousands of home bound people were seen thronging the capital's rail, bus and launch terminals since early hours of the day only to enjoy hassle-free journey.
But their plans blew away in the crowds of waiting people due to the transport crisis, also blamed on lacking in traffic management on the routes.
Vehicles on the Dhaka-Tanigail highway, critical for the people who reside in the country's 40 districts in northern, western and southern regions, had almost been stranded since early in the morning till the filing of the report at 9pm.
Buses took 8 to 9 hours to roll up to Tangail through the congestions, against actual time of 2.5 to 3 hours, from Mahakhali or Gabtoli.  
Superintendent of the highway police in Gazipur Shafiqul Islam admitted the fact of severe tailbacks on the highway, saying that hundreds of vehicles remained almost stranded till 3pm from the early hours.
He said a massive rush "left them in a difficult situation to handle the increased numbers of vehicles".
He also said a head-on collision between a truck and a bus on the highway in Gharinda area of Tangail Sadar around 5:30am caused gridlock in the morning.
 "Ashulia to Baipail, Nabinagar to Mirzapur via Chandra intersections witnessed the worst situation while vehicles moved slowly from Jamurki in Tangail to Bangabandu Bridge," he said.
An NGO official, Md Rezaunnabi, told the FE at 7pm over cellphone that he left Gabtoli at 1.15pm for Nilphamari by a bus.
 "It takes 6 to 7 hours to reach Mirzapur in Tangail--the vehicles are in standstill between Baipail and Chandra," he said in a spot account of the situation.
He said old-age passengers and children suffered most due to the road jams.
Faruqe Talukder, president of Bangladesh Bus-Truck Owners Association, told the FE that their counters were failing to maintain schedule as many of their buses could not reach the city in time.
 "Our officials are in an odd condition following the pressure of passengers," he said.  
On the other hand, trains failed schedule by three to four hours on the day, which also put the passengers in abject sufferings.
Chittagong-bound Provati Express, Subarna Express, Rangpur, Dinajpur and Nilphamari-bound Nilsagor, Akota and Rangpur Express trains had delayed reach by three to four hours behind the schedules at Kamalapur Station.
The trains left the capital with excessive numbers of passengers in every space--even on the rooftop, risking lives of hundreds of holidaymakers.
The situation was no different at Sadarghat--many launches were found departing the capital's main launch terminal with hazardous rooftop journey.
Special drive carried out by the law-enforcers concerned to ensure safe journey made little impact in changing the perennial problem.
However, BIWTA sources said a launch heading towards Barisal was halted as punishment for violating the government instructions and carrying passengers on rooftop of the unfit vessel.
Home-goers face limitless sufferings during Eid vacations as the overall carrying capacity of transports falls short of the actual requirement and infrastructure, sector-insiders have said.
Government officials and private transport operators say the number of passengers increases threefold the usual flow of 2.5 million during any Eid festival, putting extra pressure on transport operators.
tonmoy.wardad@gmail.com