Dhaka-Ctg highway tailback passes pressure on to railway

CHATTOGRAM, May 14 (UNB): Unpredictable tailback on the Dhaka- Chattogram highway discouraged people travelling by road thereby, putting extra pressure on railway.
As a result, railway is facing hard time coping with this sudden surge of passengers.
Though authorities have cut down on the tailback on Dhaka-Chattogram highway, passengers are still avoiding travels by road.
A correspondent of the news agency saw huge crowd at Chattogram Railway station since morning and many were found leaving station without getting tickets.
"I came to Chattogram from Dhaka with my mother on Friday last by Sonar Bangla (train). We had a plan to return Dhaka by bus as we wanted to see the natural beauty of Bangladesh both by bus and train," a Nepalese student told the news agency wishing not to be quoted by name.
She, however, said they have changed their mind and decided to return by train instead of bus to catch flight to Kathmandu on Wednesday morning without any problem.
The Nepalese student who came to Chattogram to attend convocation ceremony of her elder sister at Asian University for Women said it took over six hours to get train tickets though they managed the tickets through reference as there is no ticket in counter.
This correspondent saw longer line in a specialised counter dedicated for first class and all types of pre-booked and reference tickets compared to regular counters until 5:00 pm.
There have been incidents of scuffling between railway security forces and ticket seekers.
When three foreign female students, reportedly from Indonesia, were given chance to collect tickets bypassing the queue dominated by males, one of the ticket seekers protested it and engaged in altercation with railway security staff.
At one stage, railway security personnel were seen beating the youth. Later, senior railway officials came and handled the situation.
An official at the railway station said they always see pressure from passengers but the condition on highway put extra pressures on them.
Dhaka-Chittagong highway witnessed tailback for the last five days and the snarl- up spread over a 114-km stretch Sunday.
SM Arifuzzaman Amiree said the traffic jam is now reducing gradually. "It took over 12 hours to reach Dhaka on Friday. But today I came after an overnight journey and reached Chattogram in the morning."
He said it seems that from Dhaka to Chattogram the traffic jam is reducing while traffic congestion from Chattogram to Dhaka is not eased yet.