Awful trips on highways likely for Eid home-goers

Millions of homebound people may again be trapped in traffic tailbacks on their journey during the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival for too many vehicles from broadways jamming into double- or single-track outbound highways, experts fear.  
Apart from week points in traffic management, they said this perennial problem is likely to revisit mainly due to mismatch of road capacity of one place to another on long-haul journeys.
Sector-analysts said journey on two to three corridors could be more hazardous than others even after development of the Dhaka-Chittagong and the Dhaka-Mymensingh highways into four-lane ones and maintenance work on nearly 22,000 km road networks of the country.
Unplanned development of highways and byways (bypass roads) without giving solution to crossings and intersections comes as the first fault line.
A mismatch of road capacity to take four-lane highways' traffic into two-lane roads on these corridors is likely to stand as a second hurdle to add to holidaymakers' woes, they said.
Official sources predict that passengers bound for both North Bengal and Chittagong may get caught in long queues of vehicles for not having four lanes all along their respective route.
During an inter-ministerial meeting held last month, the road transport and bridges minister also admitted that this traffic congestion could not be controlled immediately for not being able to take load of four-lane traffic into two-lane roads.
Roads and Highways Department (RHD) officials said the Tangail-Elenga part of the Dhaka-Tangail route is not capable of taking heavy load of vehicles on its two-lane road, as those are coming from at least four different directions into a single road option to move to northern and north-western districts.
Vehicles mostly from Dhaka, having four-lane capacity, as well as from other zones like Narsingdi and Narayanganj through Sylhet and Chittagong highways reach the over 70-kilometre two-lane Tangail-Elenga road to go to Rajshahi, Natore, Rangpur, Bogra and Naogaon.
"Traffic congestion may continue up to the Bangabandhu Bridge (Jamuna Bridge), as the road is divided on the other side of the bridge into two directions," said one of the RHD officials.
MIM Zulfiqer, who goes to Naogaon to celebrate Eid festival with his father every year, said despite three options, traffic jam turns severe from Chandra up to the bridge due to inadequate road capacity, as vehicles from Gabtoli, Vogra and Joydevpur-Shafipur mass into the two-lane Tangail road.
From his experience, he now avoids journey on the rush in two days, and reach home early morning on the Eid-ul-Fitr day.
But other commuters using the same corridor said three to four intersections from Dhaka to Joydevpur crossing also make their journey longer as traffic on these crossroads "always remains unmanageable".
Any solution for intersections is yet to be taken, they added.
Project director of the Dhaka-Chittagong Four-Lane Project Ibne Alam Hasan claimed that some 145 kilometres out of the 193-kilometre highway were completed, and it can ease journey of the Eid passengers this year.
But he admitted that the journey may be affected in some parts, where the highway is still two-lane.
"We expect the journey on Dhaka-Chittagong Four-Lane Highway would be more comfortable than before due to completion of bituminous work in 145 kms," the PD told the FE.
But sources said of the rest 48 kms, more than 22 kilometres of the highway are two-lane.
"The Mohipal-Feni part of the country's main road corridor will be the most challenging for traffic movement, as some 10 kms of the corridor are two-lane, and it has a busy intersection connecting Feni and Laxmipur, the two industrial bases," said one project official.
The Dhaka-Chittagong Four-Lane Project includes a flyover construction plan to manage one intersection at Mohipal-Feni point.
Sources, however, said it is still on paper, as the flyover- construction component has now been planned under a new project.
Besides, an eight-km stretch from Matiara to Miabazar and Poduar Bazar, one-km Sitakundo, Bashbaria and Baropkundo and 1.5-km Kabilpur bypass, among others, have two lanes.
Meanwhile, the Highway Police also identified over 70 points of the highway unfit for traffic movement though RHD claims to have smooth road network.
During an inter-ministerial meeting, Road Transport and Highways Division (RTHD) secretary MAN Siddique claimed that traffic congestion is likely to be mitigated for the upcoming Eid holiday journey for opening up some bypass roads.
But all these roads are two-lane and occupied by grabbers, commuters alleged.
"These roads are not for bus and truck. These are actually alternative roads, and may be used by people of northern part of the city to go to different directions without using main gateways like Sayedabad, Tongi and Gabtoli etc," said an official.
Demra-Amulia-Rampura road, Tongi-Kaliganj-Ghorashal road, Majhikayetpara-Trimohoni road etc which can facilitate traffic in and out the city as alternative roads are two-lane.
The RTBD secretary said some 25 monitoring teams are working to facilitate the traffic movement on national and regional highways throughout the country. He hopes they can solve unwanted road situation without delay.
He, however, said traffic congestion often gets unmanageable when any vehicle suffers mechanical breakdown on the middle of two-lane roads.
Illegal occupying of roads and highways is another cause of traffic jam, he pointed out.
Though the inter-ministerial meeting took decision not to allow any vehicles to stop on the highway, commuters and RHD officials alleged that highway traffic gridlock is mainly created due to stopping bus and trucks frequently for toll collection as a cross-section of people are engaged in such act.
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