A long traffic jam on the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway early yesterday brought passengers misery as it was taking too much time to cross the fairly large distance.
The congestion, stretching from Salna to Mawna intersection, was said to be the result of different parts of the road subsiding due to the downpour over the last several days. The highway is being elevated to four lanes. Seasonal fruit traders also ran into difficulties while transporting their goods for export.
Trucker Abul Hasan said he set off from Chandana intersection with goods at 4am but got stuck in traffic on the Salna bridge at 10am.
“I reached Mawna intersection at 12 noon. It took me eight hours to cross 20 kilometres,” he said.
Another trucker Sabuj Mia started for Mymensingh from the capital’s Tejgaon at 2:30am but was caught in the congestion at Masterbari of Gazipur at 4am. He reached Mawna intersection at 12:30pm, after driving for eight and a half hours to cross nearly 15km.
Ripon Mia, Ena Paribahan driver, said he had started from Mohakhali at 6am and faced the jam at Hotapara at 7:30am, and reached Mawna intersection at 12:30pm. A passenger of Hasnahena bus said she was supposed to register a piece of land in Mymensingh yesterday but could not do that because she failed to reach her destination on time.
Mozammel Haque, the supervisor of Prabhati-Banasri Paribahan in Sreepur, said buses had left for Dhaka, starting from dawn till 7am, and those that had started after 7am could not cross Sreepur.
Those buses had to return, he said.
Masud Parvez Manju, a lessee in Jaina Bazar of Sreepur, said several parts of the highway, which was being elevated to four lanes, subsided because of the torrential rainfall over the past few days.
“A jackfruit-laden truck overturned after falling into a pothole in Nayanpur around 11:30pm on Sunday. It took three hours to pull up the vehicle and the fruits. However, it could not cross Gazipur even after 3am,” he said.
Officer-in-charge of Mawna intersection highway police station Sanwar Hossain said since an upgrade of the highway was underway, different parts of it, where bitumen had been applied, had subsided because of the heavy rain.
“The tailback was actually a result of this. Vehicles got stuck in Salna, Hotapara, Masterbari, Mawna intersection since the early hours yesterday,” he said.
“We have been trying to fix the subsided parts since morning by placing bricks to even out the road. Some of the vehicles tried to move after 1pm but the number of passenger vehicles taking this road is declining,” he added.
