Residents of Chittagong are grappling with congested traffic at peak times with the failure of the city’s traffic management initiatives tailor-made for Ramadan.
The situation worsens with the setting sun, when most fasting commuters, in their bid to reach home in time for iftar, bring traffic to a grinding halt.
This has been going on since the start of Ramadan, and most of the city’s roads, lanes and by-lanes get clogged up with vehicles in the hours preceding iftar.
According to sources, the situation is at its worst on the Sirajuddoula Road (from Chawk Bazar to Andarkillah crossing), Sheikh Mujib Road (from Barik Building to Dewanhat crossing), Jubili Road (from Amtoli to Kazir Dewri crossing) and Pathantoli Road (from Chawmuhuni to Kadamtoli crossing).
Traffic also slows down significantly on the Port Connecting Road (from Alangkar to Nimtoli crossing), Agrabad Access Road (from Barapole to Badamtoli crossing) and Station Road (from BRTC to New Market crossing).
Sometimes, many fasters are unable to make it home on time to break their fast and have to eat iftar food bought from roadside vendors.
Mohim Ahmed, a businessman, said he left his office at the Barikbuilding crossing for his residence at Enayet Bazar at 6pm the other day – on board a CNG run auto-rickshaw – and reached his destination well after the Maghrib’s call to prayer.
“Usually it takes no more than 15-20 minutes to cross the area. Now, you have to struggle to make your way through the nearly immobile row of vehicles on the streets. The traffic police don’t seem to care much either,” he said.
Alamgir Hossain, a banker, said he started for his residence at Halishahar K block from his office near Reazuddin Bazar at about 5:45pm, in an auto-rickshaw, and got home more than an hour late.
“Generally it hardly takes 20-25 minutes to cross the same distance. But what can we do? I had to break my fast with food from a roadside shop, which wasn’t something I enjoyed doing,” he said.
He blamed the authorities for their poor traffic management system and the “endless” construction and repairs happening on a number of roads.
Shafiqul Islam, commissioner of the Chittagong Metropolitan Police, said they had taken a number of initiatives, including changing most of the busy roads to one-way roads, to ease traffic congestion during Ramadan.
“We have deployed members of the community police in front of shopping malls and busy intersections and also posted additional police personnel,” he said. Commissioner Shafiqul said the city dwellers were partly to blame for traffic situation because they “rush home” all at the same time. He said narrow roads and manpower crisis in the traffic department are also impeding efforts to improve the traffic situation.