A 70 killomettres tailback was created on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway yesteday after a truck overturned and another broke down at different points in Comilla.
Mashiur Rahman, officer-in-charge of Mynamati highway police station, said a truck turned turtle on the highway in Chandia upazila around 2am while another went out of order at the Cantonment point at about 12:30am, blocking the highway.
Following the two incidents, a 70-km tailback was created from Paduar Bazar Bishwa Road of Comilla to Bhaterchar of Gazaria upazila of Munshiganj, inflicting immense sufferings on the passengers.
Though the trucks were removed hours later, the gridlock was yet to ease on the highway due to heavy pressure of traffic after the end of the six-day opposition-sponsored road-rail-waterway blockade programme. Dense fog also worsened the situation, reports UNB.
Large numbers of vehicles took to the streets on the day as the BNP-led 18-party alliance is set to enforce another countrywide blockade at 6am Saturday.
Hundreds of vehicles, including, buses and trucks, remained stranded in long queues on the highway as of filing this report at about 7:30pm.
Meanwhile, ferry services on Maowa-Kewrakandi river route remained suspended for over five hours early yesterday because of dense fog.
The authorities suspended operation of six ferries on the important river route at about 3:30am for thick fog to avoid any untoward incident.
Sirajul Islam, manager of Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation at Maowa ghat, said river communications on the route had remained suspended till 9am yesterday.
Six ferries with over 1,000 passengers and several hundred vehicles on board were forced to anchor at the midpoint of the Padma River, he said.
The suspension of the ferry services caused huge traffic jam on both sides of the river ghat, causing sufferings to the passengers.