A 15-kilometre-long tailback has taken shape on the Dhaka-Tangail Highway, including the Bangabandhu Bridge, since public transports resumed operation following the relaxation of the nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.
Since Thursday morning, the traffic jam was seen stretching from Karatia to Elenga at least, leaving thousands of travellers suffering in the hot weather.
Drivers of many vehicles said the gridlock was the result of the sudden pressure caused by North Bengal-bound vehicles from Karatia.
The vehicles were seen moving at a snail’s pace during an on-spot visit.
The highway somewhat got its normal look – a high number of travellers and vehicles – back since the morning as the government decided to relax the strict Covid-19 lockdown from Wednesday midnight to ease the travel and trading rushes ahead of the Eid-ul-Azha.
Under the relaxed lockdown, all types of public transports have been allowed to operate from Thursday morning, to allow the Eid holidaymakers to travel home and businesses carry on to handle the Eid shopping rush.
Elenga highway police outpost’s In-Charge Yasir Arafat said the sudden pressure of additional vehicles on the road and the breaking down of multiple vehicles were behind the traffic jam on the highway.
He said multiple teams of highway police were working to ease the pressure and return the traffic to normal as soon as possible.
No rush on Dhk-Ctg Highway
Meanwhile, surprisingly, no rush of vehicles was seen on the 97-kilometre Comilla portion of the Dhaka-Chittagong since Thursday morning.
All types of passenger or cargo vehicles were moving at normal speed as there were no gridlocks on the road and the toll plaza, said Daudkandi highway police OC Jahurul Islam.
Traffic on the highway’s Meghna and Gomti river bridges were also normal, he said.
However, he added, the number of vehicles carrying cargo and cattle were increasing alongside the passenger vehicles. “But the situation is still normal. The number of Chittagong-bound passenger vehicles is mostly up as the Covid-19 lockdown has been relaxed.”
Also, vehicular movement on Dhaka-Sylhet and Comilla-Sylhet highways returned to normal since Thursday morning after the Langalband Bridge was repaired and reopened to traffic on Wednesday afternoon.
Since the repair works begun some 58 hours ago on Monday, these two highways had experienced massive gridlocks, with the Brahmanbaria portion of the Comilla-Sylhet Highway seeing a 50-kilometre-long tailback.
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