Thousands of homebound people leaving the capital ahead of Eid-ul-Azha were stuck on Dhaka-Tangail and Dhaka-Chittagong highways as vehicular movement came to a halt since Thursday night at different spots, causing them immense sufferings.
The rush before the festival, when Durga Puja is also underway, resulted in a tailback, stretching over 40km, from Chandra of Gazipur to Elenga of Tangail Friday morning, according to our Tangail correspondent. Gridlocks also occupied the Kaliakoir-Nabinagar Road.
The gateway of 26 districts including northern districts faced the situation mainly because of numerous cattle-laden trucks moving towards the capital and returning after unloading the sacrificial animals.
Highway police said the pressure began to mount since Thursday evening and finally resulted in gridlocks within early Friday.
The commuters witnessed more pressure of vehicles as the cattle-laden vehicles started to increase in the evening.
Deadlock situations were created when drivers tried to overtake othersseeing open spaces on the opposite lanes, highway police said.
Meanwhile, a goods-laden truck broke down in Saheb Bazar area of Kaliakoir in the morning causing a gridlock. Though Kaliakoir police managed to remove the vehicle after about an hour, tailbacks on both the reached around 30km by that time.
Moreover, potholes on the road from Konabari to Kaliakoir’s Mouchak slowed the vehicles, adding to the traffic congestion.
A similar situation was seen a Korotia of Tangail with hundreds of vehicles at halt on the highway.
Mirzapur highway police Officer-in-Charge Zobaidul Alam, however, denied the allegation and said the situation had been created in the last two days as 20 times more vehicles were plyign the roads against its possible capacity.
Adding to the problems, two truck drivers were killed in a road accident on Dhaka-Bangabandhu Bridge Highway near Vatkura in the early hours, creating huge gridlock, Kamruzzaman Raz, OC of Elenga highway police station said.
On the other hand, a 15km-long tailback was created on Dhaka-Chittagong Highway near Sitakunda since Thursday night. Vehicles were sitting idle the whole night from Barabkunda of Sitakunda to Baroawlia Highway.
Police tried until morning but failed to ease the traffic jam. However, from about 10am, vehicles were seen to start moving.
