Toll collection operations were disrupted at the Mawa Toll Plaza of the Padma Bridge following a technical glitch caused by a lightning strike.
The lack of electricity at the toll booth led to a traffic jam spanning around 1.5km on the approach to the Mawa end of the bridge on Tuesday morning.
During this period, hundreds of vehicles, primarily trucks, were queued up awaiting passage across the bridge. Toll collection resumed around 10:30am once the technical issue was rectified.
Confirming the incident, Padma Bridge Site Office Additional Director Md Amirul Haider Chowdhury said that the lightning strike occurred between 3-4am, resulting in a malfunction of the toll booth's motherboard. However, the issue was promptly resolved in the morning, albeit with some congestion in the truck lane.
Ziaul Haider, the Mawa traffic police in-charge, explained that the temporary disruption in toll collection led to the accumulation of vehicles in front of the toll plaza, causing a traffic jam for about 1.5 hours. Normalcy was restored once toll collection operations resumed around 10:30am.