Traffic gridlocks continue to occur along the Dhaka Trunk (DT) road in Chittagong city as the thoroughfare, which was widened recently, was now being used as an illegal parking space by truck owners.
Just eight month back, the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA) almost doubled the width of the DT road, situated in between the port city’s Dewanhat area and Olongkar intersection, to ensure smooth traffic flow for commuters.
However, severe traffic gridlocks continue to clog the route as the newly-added space on both sides of the route was now being used to park trucks illegally.
Although the illegal activity was hampering traffic flow in the area, authorities concerned have remained indifferent in checking the trend.
CDA sources said most vehicles arriving from different parts of the country were mainly using the 5km-long DT road to reach the metropolitan areas of the port city.
While visiting the thoroughfare yesterday, this correspondent found around 300 trucks were parked on both sides of the road haphazardly grabbing almost half of the road.
Besides, hawkers and street vendors were also seen occupying the footpaths of the road on both sides forcing pedestrian to walk on the main road risking their lives.
Local mechanics and laborer were also seen repairing some trucks parked on the road while several dysfunctional trucks were also found dumped on the thoroughfare.
Minaz Uddin Sawon, a residence of the Mansurabad, told the Dhaka Tribune: “We are fed up with the daily traffic congestion problem on this road due to this illegal parking activity.”
“There is a truck terminal near the Passport office in Mansurabad area, however, these truck drivers have not been using the terminal for unknown reasons,” he added.
CDA Executive Engineer Mahfuzur Rahman, also the project director of DT road extension project, told Dhaka Tribune that CDA had extended the road’s capacity to four lanes at a cost of Tk95 crore.
Saying that the truck terminal built by the CDA in Mansurabad was capable of housing 250-300 trucks, he also said several letters were sent to the deputy commissioner (DC) traffic of Chittagong Metropolitan Police (CMP) to take necessary measure in this regard. However, the traffic department was yet to take any action in this regard.
“Now CDA has taken a decision to inform the CMP commissioner to take steps against the illegal truck stand to restore the smooth traffic at the area”, added the official.
Contacted, DC (Traffic) Md Sujayet Islam told Dhaka Tribune: “We will arrange a meeting with the leaders of the truck-owners’ association, businessmen and ward councilors at the CMP commissioner office regarding removal of the illegal truck stand on the road immediately.”